The owners are known for their successful martial arts school, their passion for horse racing and their art appreciation business in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak. Four luxury cars were first out of the gates, but stumbled, with none managing to find buyers. Nine modest items of sporting memorabilia were offered without reserve and all sold within their pre-sale estimates.
The real disappointment came as the art lots were put forward and one after another, the majority of significant artworks on offer by Nolan, Amor, Drysdale and Blackman (amongst others) were passed in, often falling well short of their lower estimates.
Of the 212 art lots offered, 167 sold, a creditable 79% - but this is unfortunately not a good representation of the day. Twenty-one lots had lower estimates of $20,000 or more and of these, only five sold and three of those went to the same purchaser.
Of those few that were successful, the best price, $340,000 h.p. ($414,800 incl. b.p.) was achieved after subdued bidding, for Nolan’s Kelly 1960 (Lot 43 ), which was snapped up well below the predicted range of $380,000 -$450,000.
The same buyer picked up two Arthur Boyds: lot 25, Fishing, Shoalhaven, (no year quoted) for $61,000 (incl. b.p.), and lot 33, Waterfall on the Banks of the Shoalhaven River with White Cockatoo (no year quoted) for $90,280 (incl. b.p.). Schoolgirl c. 1953 (Lot 38 ), one of Blackman’s more melancholy little girls, was purchased by a determined Chinese buyer in the room who had other successes during the afternoon, including Nolan’s Bird and Moon c. 1986 (Lot 22 ) at $18,300 (incl. b.p.).
One of the few lots to draw spirited bidding was Sidney Nolan’s Leda and the Swan, 1960 (Lot 45 ) eventually selling at mid-range for $48,800 (incl. b.p.).
Rick Amor’s MW in the Street, 1998 (Lot 24 ) was the first major work to frustrate. Only one bid of $85,000 was received for the rare, large scale double portrait of the artist and his wife. The painting is an illustration of the artist’s working methods - it is a great example of his fascination with the urban landscape and a reflection on his personal relationship with MW but these elements failed to lift bidding to the reserve price.
High hopes were held for Nolan’s Chinese Landscape c.1980 (Lot 18 ), but it just wasn’t to be and the lot remained unsold.
With Drysdale oils being few and far between, one would expect a healthy demand, but sadly neither of the two available were taken to new homes. The Aeroplane c.1949 (Lot 28 ) had a lower estimate of $380,000. Sotheby’s had success with Landscape (c.1966) in April this year, achieving a hammer price of $260,000 and Menzies has sold Desert Children (1958) twice in the past few years, (March, 2015 for $300,000 h.p.) and (March, 2013 for $275,000 h.p.) so on both occasions the work sold at significantly less than Sunday’s asking price.
Country Woman 1979, (Lot 26 ) with her gaze of calm resolve, restraint and confidence was priced in line with that achieved by Sotheby’s in August 2014 for The Barmaid, Broome 1965 at $400,000, but she might need all of her reserves of patience as she continues to wait for a buyer.
The Pang family have been great supporters of David Bromley and as a legacy of son John’s online art business, held a generous number of the artist’s nude portraits and images of children playing. With so many on offer at once without reserve, numerous buyers were able to take ownership of a Bromley at base-line prices.
A great proportion of works on paper: lithographs and drawings by Blackman, Nolan, Boyd, Olsen and Perceval made available were also free of reserve and these generally found buyers, though few went for prices above expectation. The internet and phones were a little more lively for these opportunities, but overall the staff manning the technology were not over-taxed during the afternoon.
Mossgreen broke with tradition in printing their catalogue for The Barry and Anne Pang Collection in Chinese as well as English and the crowd assembled clearly indicated that there are Chinese buyers taking a great interest in Australian art.
Hopes must have been somewhat dashed with so few big-ticket items finding buyers but perhaps it is a case of baby steps, and with targeted marketing by the auction houses, new markets may yet emerge and prosper.
