Every auction house would acknowledge that it’s a strength to have pre-sale absentee bid commitments as well as seemingly likely buyers booking phone lines, but if that’s where most of the bidding is founded it can make for a flat and dull dynamic in the room. In an ideal auction situation all the bidding mechanisms are engaged, thereby fully exploiting the possibilities for price increases.
The quiet room of mainly market observers rather than participants did not prevent MAB from achieving a remarkably low pass-in rate of only 14%, with a huge $9 million in sales recorded under the hammer and 86% sold by value.
Overall there was plenty of up-take at the lower end with 87% of lots under $20,000 selling. Menzies would have been pleased that there was also the exact same high clearance rate in the upper echelons for works estimated at $100,000 and beyond. The weak spot in the sale was centred around the magic $50k mark; 8% of the catalogue was estimated in the $50,000-100,000 bracket and at sale end, 2.5% of sales were recorded in this range.
The other defining characteristic of the sale was that bidders had clearly set boundaries and would only pay up to low estimate in 62% of cases, whatever the estimate range.
As expected, La Femme accroupie… by Auguste Rodin (Lot 42 ), set the highest price with one telephone bidder prising the prize from another caller at its low estimate of $1.2 million (all prices are hammer).
Russell Drysdale’s Country Child (Lot 40 ) was not far behind, taking second place at $1.1 million, a steal for the telephone bidder at $300,000 less than its 2008 hammer price.
The other paintings by Drysdale fared moderately well; The Young Ringer (Lot 36 ) sold on its quote for $400,000 and Desert Nomad (Lot 49 ) fetched $240,000 against an estimate set almost 20% higher.
MAB continued their success in marketing the sculptural work by Jacques Lipschitz selling Homme assis à la clarinette II (Lot 38 ) at the low estimate of $550,000. Likewise Lying Horizontal Figure by Alexander Archipenko sold on the button for $65,000 while a commission bidder enjoyed good fortune in buying Jean Arp’s bronze (Lot 21 ) $2,000 below the low estimate for $14,000. Emile-Antoine Bourdelle’s bust of Beethoven (Lot 18 ) sold mid-estimate for $32,000 to the most active room participant of the night, paddle no 210.
Lloyd Rees‘ A Song to Creation –Land (Lot 45 ) also bucked the trend, selling mid-quote for $450,000, again to the phone. Another landscape painting, Cyclone Tracy – Willy Willy by Rover Thomas’ (Lot 48 ) also achieved a mid estimate sale amount of $220,000 which will lift the spirits of Aboriginal art collectors.
Dare I say it, but the tide looks to be turning for Jeffrey Smart and Gary Shead in the secondary market. No longer can they be depended on for staunch and robust auction results. This year seven of Smart’s twelve paintings featured at auction have passed in, including last night’s lot, The President Factory. Works by Gary Shead are sharing the same fate with just over 50% of his twenty-one paintings unsold, counted amongst them Queen of Spades (Lot 60 ) which was passed in at $65,000. Better results were borne by Artist and the Muse (Lot 29 ) hammered shy of its low end at $75,000 and the Ern Malley series (Lot 79 ) sold 20% under estimate for $26,000.
There was also no glimmer of interest for the work by big ticket international artist, Sean Scully (Lot 39 ) with a $700,000 plus price tag and a splendid painting by James Gleeson (Lot 52 ) was found wanting. Interest was lacking for David Larwill’s The Gang (Lot 27 ) and it sold 20% short of its quote for $32,000.
Ending on a positive note, sale results of mention included Eugene von Guerard’s Rom vom Monte Mario aus gesehen (Lot 53 ) which exceeded upper estimate to fetch $170,000.
One of the best buys of the evening was Chanting the Ching by Ian Fairweather (Lot 44 ) knocked down in the room for $360,000 against a $400,000-500,000 quote, a result that places it amongst the artist’s top ten.
Without doubt the blue-chip bargain of the night was bagged by a well known Sydney dealer who paid $410,000 for Werribee Gorge IV by Fred Williams (Lot 41 ).
The most vigorous and spirited bidding contest was saved for lot 51, Arthur Boyd’s
Hunter, (Lot 53 ). It realised $130,000, one bid above high estimate, and represented a very healthy profit upon its 2010 sale price of $90,000 hammer, defying the current norm.
Winning the vote for the star turn of the evening and a work aptly named for our times; Tug of War (Lot 7 ) by Ethel Spowers trounced its quote, and in fact almost quadrupled it, fetching $30,000, setting the second highest price for the artist.
