There may be similar sets of steps in Sydney's Lavender Bay but that is not why the buyer, car dealer Mr Steve Nasteski, and three other bidders in the room were interested in it.
The steps were in Rome and the painting by Jeffrey Smart. The bidders, including the successful finalist, were enticed by a fine early (1967) painting at an estimate $250,000 to $350,000, which was lower than the more recent works by the 81 year old artist.
The purchase suggests any wounds caused by Mr Nasteski's brush with a fake Brett Whiteley of Lavender Bay have been overcome.
Some of the money had been repaid by the provider, Nasteski told the writer.
The Whiteley fake affair did not seem to affect the interest in a genuine well-provenenced work in the sale although the Whiteley Wategoes Beach drawing (Lot 28 ) failed to sell and the auction as a whole was flat.
Given the quality and selectivity employed in its composition, this was not very reassuring for a market in which quality and rarity are said to always find a respectable level in times of financial uncertainty, when other investment channels look less inviting.
The sale grossed $3.93 million hammer or $4.72 million including the 20 per cent buyers premium. This compared with estimates of $6.15 million to $8.24 million. .The figure was helped by higher priced lots selling at reserve - or at least one bid below the lower estimates.
The major Whiteley in the sale, Shao (Rain Slanted by Wind) (Lot 22 ) was knocked down for $580,000 ($696,000 IBP) to the man who might have auctioned it if Sotheby's Australia had not been franchised to Tim Goodman and associates.This was Justin Miller, who left the chairman' s job at Sotheby's Australia last November when the operation was taken over.
The price of the grey-faun painting (beige in some light) of a heron with two real eggs was a little below the estimates of $600,000 to $800,000. The estimates exclude the BP.
Sotheby's had to push a little hard to secure some of the works in the sale if the estimates were any guide, but obviously reasoned this a logical approach, as stocks and shares and property still looking very uncertain.
Given his background in property Miller may agree. He also bid $52,000 (Lot 37 ) on the Grace Cossington Smith Bottle Brush but let it go to a phone bidder for $64,000. ($76,800 IBP).
Seizing the moment to buy some attractive stock, the sale would have been a disaster without the support of Sydney dealer Denis Savill. This buying began at lot one, Donald Friend's Flight into Egypt, attractively estimated at $10,000 to $15,000 for the trade at least which can input the GST it bore. The smallish, almost Mexican modernist style, painting sold for $26,000 ($31,200 IBP).
Savill's bidder's number 466, was called at an above estimates $17,000 ($20,400IBP) for Friend's Girl with Ginger Cat (Lot 3 ) two lots later, and on several more important occasions during the sale. Savill has seen many dips in the economy since he went into business in the 1970s and believed a good occasion for the acquisition of increasingly elusive classic stock presented itself.
Lots 4 (a Ray Crooke) at $28,000 of $33,600 IBP; 6 (an Arthur Boyd Shoalhaven) at $101,000 ($121,200 IBP); and 7, a Nolan at $82,000 ($98,400 IBP) also fell to Savill. The Nolan, The Pursuit, a vertical panel showing a policeman, must have been particularly poignant, as Savill has dressed up in a like uniform at his openings and has escorted uninvited guests from his gallery openings wearing it.
Savill proved a bit of a cheer leader for the sale with a loud "Yup" that on one occasion almost gave the auctioneer Tim Goodman (so he said) a heart attack and provided the only few lively interjections. Goodman repeatedly looked to Savill for bids and asked on one occasion if a raised arm was a bid.
Savill, lifting a can of beer, said "No It is a VB".
Savill's commitment to his stable did not extend to Garry Shead, two of whose works, not from the best series, went unsold. He also passed up on the Charles Blackman, The White Tablecloth, (Lot 8 ) which scraped home at $540,000 hammer ($648,000IBP) , $10,000 below the lower estimate.
This was a lively composition of a jumbled table cloth but, from the important Alice series, lacked the one important detail - a figure of Alice or other Wonderland character. It appeared to go to a celebrated Opera patron A surprising number of lots that sold went to buyers in the room suggesting that bidders were intent on closely controlling how their money was spent.
While the auctioneer struggled, the event retained some of the sparkle of the up-market auction, clients well dressed and coiffeured for the ocasions, arriving and generally behaving themselves in social groups despite the move from the Paddington Town Hall to rooms, admittedly handsomely refurbished, where greasy old cars also used to be auctioned, and which had now been spruced up to hold Sotheby's auctions more economically.
Art consultants appeared able to exercise a few commissions, most notably when Sue Hewitt, who often buys for Ros Packer, gave $100,000 ($10,000 above the lower estimate and $120,000 with BP) for Arthur Streeton's Sydney Harbour (Lot 12 ).
The very Whistlerian painting had the much esteemed, if over-rated provenance of George Page-Cooper, who was both a collector and a trader, from a sale on his behalf in 1967. The sale was quite rich in Streetons and works by this evergreen blue chip appeared mostly to fare well.
Sydney rare bookseller Anne McCormick secured a scrapbook of six drawings of the Darling Downs by the little known Thomas Taylor (lot 43) for $110,000 ($144,000 IBP) plus inputable full GST, against estimates of $40,000 to $60,000.
The only colonial offering in the sale, showed a corroborree. It was the second time this week that a lot depicting Aboriginal ceremonies had attacted huge interest, a photo album also making big money on Sunday at Mossgreen's tribal art auction in Sydney. (see Newstead report below.)
The Taylor drawings were underbid by a couple who declined to be button holed.
Paintings by other Impressionist artists, the Frederick McCubbin 1904 Pastoral (Lot 13 ) and Walter Withers After the Heat of Day of 1891 (Lot 11 ) were passed in although the Withers might be better described as Victorian than Impressionist.
The same fate befell Fred Williams (Lysterfield) Landscape (Lot 20 ) the second painting in the sale with suggestions of bird droppings in the composition (the first was the Whiteley) and the same artist's Orange and Green Landscape (Lot 29 ). Resale of these works, if bought last night would attract the artist's resale royalty and a cheque to the artist's widow when resold next.
Also unwanted was Nolan's 1960 Ned Kelly. While "everyone wants" a Ned Kelly head, this is not true of messy renditions at $400,000 to $600,000 (lot 18.).
Battered modern industrial landscapes were wanted but not old ones judging by the sale of Rick Amor's The Mansions (2003) (Lot 32 ) for $65,000 and the passing in of John Perceval's Brickworks at Oakleigh (1946) at a best bid of $60,000.
From the same school and vintage as the latter Arthur Boyd's ceramic painting Floating Figures with Waterfall and White Dog (lot 47) made $32,000 ($38,400) to property developer Irwin Katz, better known as a collector of Impressionist women's art.
Sotheby's, however, remained upbeat. Vice Chairman and National Head of Australian Art, Geoffrey Smith, noted “We are very pleased with the results for last night’s auction. Some exceptional results proved once more that rare works of exceptional quality continue to create competitive bidding. The market for blue chip art continues to stimulate robust demand and determined bidding from collectors.”
