Despite Klingender’s “amazement” at the lack of interest shown from Australia, one Australian institution mustered funds to acquire a rare-to-the-market South Eastern Australian broad shield for £47,500 (Lot 1 ), at almost AUD $95K. A new record in this category was set with the early 19th century lower Murray River broad shield (Lot 2 ), which realised £87,500 (AUD $174.7K), making its sturdy pre-sale estimate of £35-45K seem whimsical.
According to Klingender, most buyers – of whom 90% actually viewed the sale – stemmed from the UK, Middle East, Europe, USA and surprisingly, Russia. In a sign that the Aboriginal art market has reach, and legs, Klingender reports that a large percentage of buyers were actually new to the field, including a private UK museum that acquired many of the works in the sale “with an eye for exhibitions”.
In Australia, the market for bark paintings is generally under appreciated and languishes behind other collecting areas. The northern hemisphere interest saw important new benchmarks in this field with two paintings almost doubling the previous record for a bark at auction ($102K for a work by Mingelmanganu, sold in 2007 at the market’s peak).
Jack Karedada’s wandjina, Namarali – the First One (Lot 56 ), in the Vroom collection since 1998, made £100,000 (AUD $199.6K), a staggering tenfold increase on pre-sale expectations. With documented provenance tied to a 1972 film, Lalai Dreamtime, it eclipsed wandjina master Alec Mingelmanganu’s work, Austral Gothic (Lot 58 ), which realised £93,750 (AUD $187.2K) against £20-30K.
The major failing of the sale was the group of Papunya Tula ‘stars’ (with a presale tally of £195,000), all of which had very strong estimates compared to comparable local offerings and none of which found a buyer.
Not hampered by the need for Australian export permits for items deemed of significant cultural heritage, the lack of buyer interest in Aboriginal art’s first and most important wave of contemporary expression suggests that the perception of cultural authenticity amongst the sale’s cashed up audience was firmly located in an ethnographic/anthropological paradigm.
In contrast, the works by the great Rover Thomas were reasonably estimated (lots 66–68), and yet only one attracted interest, the earliest and earthiest of the bunch. Two paintings by Balgo master Wimmitji failed to sell (lots 69, 70), proving more work needs to be done in educating the European taste about this important second wave.
The best performing work from amongst the contemporary offering was Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s gorgeous Wild Yam 2 (Lot 73 ), which sold for £100,000 (AUD $199.6K) against expectations of £80-120K.
The inclusion of contemporary works by Tommy Watson and Ningura Napurrula was a nod to the artists’ presence and profile in France, where works feature in the fabric of Paris’ ethnographic Musée du Quay Branly.
The Watson, lot 74, was inexpensive at £15-25K, and carried a provenance that included AAMU exhibition history/literature. Its failure was probably tied to its early and relatively subdued colour field and sparse working. Selected, no doubt, for its art centre provenance, it was no match to the artist’s potent and brilliant later works executed outside that model, which are now the preserve of retail and private sales due to the consignment policies of all major firms.
Ningura Napurrula’s Woman’s birth site at the rockhole site of Wirrulnga (Lot 75 ) stemmed from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, and was a superb and extremely elegant example of the artist’s classic iconography. It made £77,500 (AUD $154.7K) against expectations of £35-50K; a new record for this pioneer painter.
Klingender is very pleased with the result, especially since he considered the sale to have been “relatively risky” (only in postscript). He has confirmed that Sotheby’s UK is now committed to build on this success with an annual auction “at a more ambitious level”. Given the lack of interest in the contemporary works I asked him what he meant by ‘ambitious’. The clarification: that he would be working towards “a small masterpiece auction” in London next June, again with a New York preview.
Local firms offering dedicated auctions of Aboriginal art will be happy the market is showing strength and reaching new audiences. Outside of lucky strike single-vendor sales, however, these firms are down to one multi-vendor sale per year, so Sotheby’s concerted competition in this arena poses a definite threat.
