Last sold at auction in 1998 for $74,000 the ceremonial depiction, painted almost a century before the advent of the modern Aboriginal art ‘movement’, more than justified Sotheby’s $180,000 to $250,000 presale estimate to attain the sixth highest price ever recorded for a work of Aboriginal art. It was the star performer in an otherwise lacklustre sale in which the majority of high value lots failed to attract buyers and mid to low range items barely reached their low estimates.
With the hoopla of their standing-room only sales consigned to distant memory, the audience took their seats with comparative decorum. The mood in the room could best be described as ‘interested’, rather than ‘expectant’ with no more than 15% of the room actually participating in the sale. Sotheby’s Aboriginal art sales are such a vital barometer, that dealers and collectors sat prepared to have their fears for the state of the art market confirmed.
The decision to restrict this mid-year Aboriginal art sale to just 153 lots worth $2.6 million had been prudent. The slightly less ethnographic and conservative offering with a significant number of works carrying estimates well below market expectations cleverly positioned this sale to achieve high clearances by value and volume. After Aboriginal art sales halved between 2007 and 2008 a significant number of lots carried estimates well below the market expectations of even six months ago and the back end of the catalogue carried more than two dozen paintings that were so inexpensive that they would never have made the Sotheby’s cut this time last year. With vendors obviously reluctant to let go of treasured works in these unfavorable market conditions the sale included a large number of works that had been through auction rooms relatively recently.
In the end the sale achieved a 67% Clearance rate by value, principally on the back of the Barak sale, and clearance by volume was 63% despite the high number of low value lots and the number of items carrying low pre-sale estimates.
As expected the sale kicked off in fine enough style. The South West Queensland boomerang (Lot 1 ) turbo charged the sale opening when spirited bidding took it to $17,000. However the remaining artifacts attracted more staid attention with most pieces barely reaching their low estimates or being passed in. Lot 16, described in the catalogue as an Early and Rare Sea Turtle Hunting Charm and estimated at $60,000 to $80,000 failed to find a buyer despite the strong interest amongst tribal art collectors for early Torres Strait Islander pieces. There was some evidence of the original old carving having later modifications, and it had possibly originally sold as a tourist item. Purchased for $6,000 in a job lot at Young’s in March this year, additional research is required to definitively establish its age.
The following lot, a 1948 bark created by an unknown artist seemed to get the sale back on track when it tripled its low estimate selling for $42,000. Other barks and Arnhem Land carvings sold poorly, with many failing to sell, including the early bark previously in the collection of the Australian artists Hans Heysen. The best of the Yirawala barks (Lot 26 ) sold for a bargain price of $11,000 while his others, and that by North East Arnhem land master Munggurrawuy Yunupingu were passed in. Yet Mawalan Marika’s Milky Way c1965 (Lot 30 ) sold above its high estimate for a hammer price of $36,000 despite carrying the additional buyers premium plus GST on the hammer price.
Sotheby’s secured three major works they had previously sold to American collector Glenn Schaffer and two of the three failed to attract a buyer. They included Mick Namarari’s Marnpi Rockhole (Lot 87 ) and the major Rover Thomas work in the sale Massacre Site Old Texas Station that had carried an estimate of just $180,000 to $250,000. Yet Schaffer’s Awelye created by Emily Kngwarreye (Lot 81 ), which he purchased 2003 for $120,000, sold for its mid estimate of $150,000.
Pierre Maracaux and Ken Thompson would have been equally disappointed in the results attained for their collection of paintings from Balgo Hills. The work created by Sunfly Tjampitjin during the first year of the Warlayirti Art Centre (Lot 43 ) was passed in after attracting a bid of no more than $8,500. It had been purchased at Lawson~Menzies as the market was rising to the boil in 2004 for $43,050. While the Untitled Ena Gimme Nungurayai (Lot 44 ) exceeded its high estimate to sell for $17,000 Wimmitji Tjapangati's Artist's Country (Lot 45 ) went for a bargain $25,000 and the record holding Suzie Bootja Bootja painting, Kaningarra, 1999, (Lot 48 ) purchased in 2004 for $43,050 sold this time around for just $22,000 on the hammer. The major work by Balgo matriarch Eubena Nampitjin (Lot 49 ) was passed in.
As expected the greatest interest in early Papunya paintings was reserved for the Untitled Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayai board previously owned by Margaret Carnegie and later by Lauraine Diggins, which had been included in the exhibition and illustrated in the catalogue A Myriad of Dreaming, in 1989. Estimated at $90,000 to $120,000 it sold for $140,000 on the hammer.
However the real story of this sale, apart from the stunning result for the creased and slightly crunched Barak work on paper was the number of good works by important figures of the movement, which failed to garner any interest at all. Lots 85 to 91 included important paintings carrying mid range estimates between $18,500 and $215,000. These lots were the litmus test of the sale, yet the works by Queenie McKenzie, Rover Thomas, Mick Namarari, Kathleen Petyarre, Lilly Kelly, Dorothy Napangarti and Emily Kngwarreye all failed to attract a buyer.
Apart from one or two exceptions, the highlights of the sale were the ethnographic pieces. Far from indicating the market is about to turn the corner, it indicates the train has been shunted off in to unchartered territory. This sale should be sending shivers throughout the market. It is far more likely that we will wait until the end of 2011 to see any light at the end of this tunnel.
