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

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.

A leader and diplomat of the Warumungu people, Nat Warano, locally known as Tracker Nat on account of his services as a police tracker, played a pivotal role in politics and art during 1930s -50s. His artistic practice was integral to his role as a leader in the Warumungu community, creating drawings and carvings of coolamons, spearthrowers and shields and often featured painted scenes of men dancing in ceremonial dress or hunting.  His art functioned as gifts or trade in Tennant Creek, NT, where the act of gifting was rooted in the tradition of ngijinkirri among the Warumungu people and intended to establish a sense of obligation for the recipient towards the giver. Thematically, Warano would often depict scenes of Warumungu life but in this woomera (lot 551) we see Warano play with iconography of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, perhaps to symbolise not only a nation moving forward but also the moving forward of his community.

The October Fine Aboriginal Art auction from Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers features some standout works from high profile artists such as Judy Watson Napangardi, Dorothy Napangardi, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Makinti Napanangka and Kudditji Kngwarreye, plus a good selection of lower estimate works for new collectors.