Highlights on the night included the sale of Daniel Walbidi’s Atali and Warla, 2015 (Lot 45 ) for $55,000 (hammer); $44,000 for a lovely 1995 Wildflower Dreaming by Emily Kngwarreye (Lot 69 ), and lot 43 sold for $22,000, the second highest recorded result for National Aboriginal and TSI Art Award winner Ngoia Pollard Napalajarri Swamps Around Nyrripi.
Though short on lots with stratospheric prices, by night's end 70% of the lots, with a total value of $1,081,437.5 (including buyer’s premium), found new homes, with 25% of these selling to international buyers.
Amongst the many strong results for smaller works, Sally Gabori’s Dibirdibi Country (Lot 2 ) measuring just 101 x 77 cm sold to a local buyer for $16,000 against a presale estimate of $8,000-12,000; while a small bark by Gunamna Malaluba, Garrimala (Lot 93 ) winner of the 2013 NATSIAA award in the category for Bark Painting, sold for $7,500 against a presale estimate of $3,000-4,000, eclipsing the artists previous record for a painting in this medium.
An unusual self-portrait of the artist and her sister by Gulumbu Yunupingu Two Sisters (Lot 58 ) was reputedly her first bark painting ever and the only work known to exist in this figurative style sold for $6,500 to a buyer in the United States.
An early painting by Trevor Nickolls Self Portrait (Lot 30 ), created four years before he represented Australia at the Venice Biennale is now on its way to London after selling for $12,000, exceeding its high estimate. We Own This, a diptych by ProppaNOW’s Richard Bell, currently showing at the Tate Powerhouse in London sold for $14,000. Tony Albert's sculptural piece Am I, Are You, Are We, (Lot 27 ), sold to the buyer in the room for $9,000.
A lovely small board Water and Rainbow (Lot 46 ) by Old Mick Walankari Tjakamarra, solely representing the genesis era of the Western Desert, sold for $19,000. All three late 1970s works sold well: the 1979 board Pitjarra (Lot 47 ) by Johnny Warangkula sold for $20,000 while Anatjarri Tjakamarra’s Two Boys (Lot 48 ), and Tim Leura’s Ceremonial Possum and Woman’s Dreaming (Lot 49 ) are both on route to Switzerland after achieving $16,000 and $9,500 respectively.
Record prices were set for Far North Queensland artist, and 2023 Wynne Prize finalist, Naomi Hobson, whose A Place of Plenty, 2019, (Lot 52 ) more than doubled her previous record when sold for $26,000. And Martumili artist Bugai Whyoulter’s Kunapila, 2013 (Lot 1 ), achieved $9,000 easily exceeding the previous record set in 2016 for a painting 6 times the size.
