But there have also been some other d-forces at work: disengagement or de-cluttering.
These have combined to produce a very eclectic series of sales, oddly dominated by a wad of New Zealand paintings.
Sotheby's kicks off the round of a sale of 246 lots with an estimated value of $7.0 million to $9.41 million in Melbourne on Monday August 24 and Tuesday August 25.
The Monday sale will be a mixed vendor offering on behalf of many vendors including James Fairfax (four works) and the Tuesday sale will be the collection of property developer Austcorp Group, which has been consigned by the voluntary administrator appointed as a result of Austcorp's debt problems.
The Austcorp offering is worth $800,000 to $1.2 million, so by far the greater value is in the first night's sale.
Some individuals like Fairfax are approaching a period in their life when they are tidying up some of their assets regardless of their financial situation. It is time for the clutter to go.
However, the total is still a big amount during distressed financial times. It suggests that some vendors' anxieties to raise funds are more than offsetting their fears about the damage of exposing them - and possibly their own financial situation - to a fickle market when money is tight.
Bonhams and Goodman's 95 lot sale in Melbourne of Australian and International Fine Art, of which the biggest draw is a 1955 Albert Tucker estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, clashes with the second night of Sotheby's.
However, at least it is in the same city.
B and G has been close to the family of Albert Tucker who died in 1999. The death of another artist, however, has boosted B and G's total although simultaneously posed a geographical challenge for bidders.
Some of them will have to fly back to Sydney quickly for the same company's 106 lot sale of the estate of the Late James Gleeson which will be held in Gleeson's home town on August 27.
The Gleeson estate has lower estimates of $874,000 and an upper estimate of $1,265,300
The B and G Australian and International Fine Art sale is estimated at $3,072,200 to $4,405,100.
Deutscher and Hackett's sale of Important Australian + International works of art, including a private collection of four major paintings by New Zealander Colin McCahon (died 1987) is wedged in between the two B and G sales, in Melbourne on August 26.
The McCahons come from Sydney publisher Stephen Bush, against a background of a changing marital status.
Traditionally, because of their value, they might have become the subject of the private treaty sales.
These sales tend to enjoy greater currency during hard times because of the discretion they offer possibly needy vendors, and the particularly bruising effect of rejection of highly valued works at auction.
Divorce, however, is also one of the foundation stones of the auction industry.
D+H's 147 lots of colonial, traditional, modern, contemporary Australian and (especially New Zealand) International art are estimated to make $4 million to $6 million.
The market in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art will be subject to a limited challenge, with 40 works being offered in the dispersal of the estate of the Sydney art patron the late Ross Jones, being sold by Mossgreen at the Randwick Race Course on August 30.
At the same venue the following day, Mossgreen director Paul Sumner will bring down the hammer on a multi-vendor 248 tribal art offering, put together by its specialist Bill Evans.
There will only be a few dot paintings, the emphasis being on barks and artefacts.
The art and antique collection of the estate late Marjorie Kingston including 100 lots of lesser priced traditional art will be held by E. J. Ainger of Richmond at Kingston's home at 3 Tivoli Place, South Yarra on September 6.
Menzies Art Brands' next sale is out of sync. with this run of sales, being scheduled for Sydney on September 23.
Sotheby's next Aboriginal art sale, its second and usually lesser offering, is on November 23 and 24, although a cracker of a lot has been promised as the catalogue cover picture.
A detailed pre-auction review of each of this sales will be published by the Australian Art Sales Digest in the coming weeks.
