Submitted by aarAdmin on Mon, 04/03/2023 - 00:00
Melbourne-based Leski Auctions had no trouble selling the large wine collection of Polish Jew Martin Sachs who survived the horrors of the World War II Holocaust in the German Mauthausen Labour Camp to live to the venerable age of 95.
After the war, Martin, who died in 2020, migrated to Australia where he became a successful builder and developer and was able to indulge in some of the finer things in life such as art and wine collecting, cooking and chess.
In the late 1960s, he teamed up with Max Lake, of Lake’s Folly vineyard in New South Wales Hunter Valley, to finish up with an 8000-bottle wine cellar at his Toorak home.
The vaulted ceilings and huge walls were the perfect venue for his art collection that included one of his favourites, an early Jeffrey Smart oil painting entitled Woolloomooloo Squash (lot 2) that sold for $90,000 on a $60,000-$80,000 catalogue estimate, during the March 30 auction (part II) of remaining art and wine.
Leski Auctions sold much of his art and wine collection in March last year.
There were nine artworks (with six selling) and 324 wine lots – all of which changed hands – in this auction.
One of the more interesting wine lots (lot 15) comprised five bottles of 1964 South Australian Crittenden’s Saltram Celebration Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and four bottles of Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon from the same year which sold for $1700 on a $200-$250 catalogue estimate.
A magnum of 1999 Lake’s Folly Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Shiraz and Merlot (lot 290) in its original box was another strong performer at $360 on a $100-$200 estimate while three bottles of 1964 South Australian Wynns Coonawarra Estate Hermitage (lot 13) sold for $800 on a $400-$600 estimate.
Martin left an indelible mark on Melbourne’s architecture, particularly in the Beaumaris area where he was renowned for his innovative designs including conversion of a chicken farm into a residential court.
