Submitted by aarAdmin on Mon, 11/28/2022 - 00:00
If iconic Australian businesswoman Millie Phillips were still alive, she no doubt would not have been surprised that two of the paintings in her auction collection would achieve world auction records for the artists involved.
And so it proved on November 23 at Menzies Sydney sale when Lloyd Rees’s Sydney – The Source 1973 (lot 17) and Yosl Bergner’s The Last Supper 1982 sold respectively for $564,545 and $79,773 including buyers’ premiums – as most of the works sold within or above their catalogue estimates.
A Polish Jew, Millie was only nine when in 1938 her family fled Nazi persecution and emigrated to Australia.
Despite many almost insurmountable challenges, her great business acumen resulted in Millie becoming the first woman in Australia to float and chair public companies including International Mining Corporation and Milstern Healthcare and, at the height of the country’s nickel mining boom in 1969, become known as “Mining Millie” and the “Nickel Queen”.
Avidly supporting the construction of educational and medical facilities, houses of worship and other community buildings in both Australia and Israel, her benevolent work continues posthumously with donations of $100 million.
At the same time, Millie was a huge collector of Australia art and the first 49 paintings in the Menzies auction were part of her legacy.
Many filled the top 10 results positions including Sidney Nolan’s Kelly and Rifle 1980 (lot 16) which sold for $490,909 and Fred Williams’ Werribee Gorge (10) 1977-78 (lot 18) for $484,773.
Other paintings in the top 10 belonging to Millie include Jeffrey Smart’s Study I for Bus Terminus 1972-73 (lot 15), which changed hands for $220,909, and Brett Whiteley’s Cockatoo 1988 (lot 1) that brought $214,773.
Among the internationals, American Robert Indiana set an Australian artist record for his sculpture Hope (Red/Blue/Green) 2009 (lot 72) with a $306,818 result and a print and graphics artist record of $51,545 for Four Seasons of Hope (Silver) 2012 (lot 84).
Nolan turned up again outside the Phillips collection with Mrs Skillion Putting her Fingers to her Nose c1947 (lot 67) with a $429,545 sale figure – the same price as that reached for Aboriginal artist Lin Onus’s The Joy of Fish – in Waiting 1994 (lot 81).
Smart also figured again in the top sales with Ticket Boxes, Catania 1964 (lot 71) that changed hands for $306,818 – while Lynn Chadwick’s Maquette II Diamond 1984 sculpture (lot 74) did not disappoint at $220,909.
