Art market information for Australian and New Zealand forthcoming auctions, past auction results from 1969 to the present, market statistics, news and opinion.

Another Australian auction first among the 123 lots, with a total low estimate of $4.84 million, is the appearance of Spanish sculptor Manolo Valdes, who is now 82 years old.  His show-stopping monumental bronze Reina Mariana 2004 (lot 37), with a $400,000-$600,000 estimate, was inspired by Diego Velazquez’s official Portrait of Mariana of Austria (1652-53) – while Valdes’s various works of the Spanish-born Austrian queen (1634-1696) have become true contemporary European art icons, with one prominent example in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao collection.

Art Leven's First Nations Fine Art Auction, on 12 November 2024,  will be the inaugural offering under the new Art Leven banner, showcasing the continuing evolution of the oldest exhibiting First Nations-focused fine art gallery and only such specialised auction house in Australia.

Art Leven continues to honour the legacy of Cooee Art, which was founded by Adrian Newstead and Louise Ferrier in 1981.

The November First Nations Fine Art Auction, from Art Leven (formerly Cooee Art) will be the inaugural offering under the Art Leven banner. Held on 12 November 2024 the auction will showcase the continuing evolution of the oldest exhibiting First Nations-focused fine art gallery and only such specialised auction house in Australia. Art Leven continues to honour the legacy of Cooee Art, which was founded by Adrian Newstead and Louise Ferrier in 1981.

A painting of a M?ori elder is expected to bring a record price and become one of the most expensive oil paintings in New Zealand history. Commentators believe Thoughts of a Tohunga, painted by New Zealand artist Charles Frederick Goldie in 1938, could bring up to $3 million at an auction next month. This would make it the most expensive oil painting ever sold in New Zealand.

The scene depicted was largely destroyed in the Great Port Adelaide Fire of November 1857 in a blaze covering several acres that wiped out half the area and almost its entire commercial district including three hotels, 12 shops, one bank, 16 cottages, two stables and several outbuildings. Frank was the son of William Hankey (1807-1872), a scion of the Hankey mercantile and banking dynasty in London, and arrived in Adelaide on board the Madras on January 11, 1855 with Samuel Francis White, a principal of their families joint London mercantile firm Dauglish, White & Hankey – which possessed interests in Australian mining and communications and large commercial interests in the colony. By the mid-1860s, Frank had settled in Sydney where he served several lengthy jail terms for forgery, despite inheriting princely sums from his father’s estate – engendered largely by his love of expensive living.