Mr Rodney Menzies, chairman of Menzies Art Brands (MAB), has appointed Litsa Veldekis as MAB's National Head of Art from the August 1 and Sotheby's Australia has let its senior Aboriginal art specialist go, distributing his work though its different departments and sales.
Mossgreen has taken the specialist on board to help fill its new premises in Melbourne's Armadale.
Ms Veldekis left the Menzies group three years ago when she became one of many in the auction industry to join a re-shaped Bonhams Australia. She is currently Head of Australian and International Art at Bonhams.
Mr Menzies told the AASD that Ms Veldekis appeared to like the Menzies culture and the appointment would help lessen his personal direction of the group in favour of younger members of staff.
Word from Bonhams is that it will not be looking to replace her because of the existing experience within the company and the impending addition to its Sydney art department of Ms Merrin Schriever from Deutscher and Hackett, which is still smarting from the loss of the Grundy sale to Bonhams. Mr Alex Clark is Bonhams Australian and International Art specialist based in Melbourne. Bonhams also has substantial Australian art world connections through its chairman Mr Mark Fraser.
Bonhams Australia, which sold the Grundy Australian art collection in June for $19.1 million, will be looking to benefit from the departure of Sotheby's Australia from specialist Aboriginal art auctions. But Sotheby's Australia still plans to sell its Aboriginal art - in its other themed sales such as interiors.
The Davidson departure surprised in so far as he had just completed (May 28) a specialist sale which grossed $2.27 millon with 87 per cent sold by value and 58 per cent by lot. Sotheby's Australia then under Mr Tim Klingender (now senior consultant to Bonhams) largely established a once highly prosperous secondary market in Aboriginal art in the 1990s.
Deutscher and Hackett has become another player with its Aboriginal art sale on March 27 grossing $1.78 million. Its 85 per cent by value and 78 per cent by value also not fully reflecting the current malaise in the industry.
Mr Paul Sumner, MD of Mossgreen Auctions, has appointed Mr D’Lan Davidson as head of Mossgreen's Indigenous art department with former head of Christie’s Aboriginal art and Contemporary Aboriginal art specialist Mr Shaun Dennison remaining as senior consultant and Mr Bill Evans, expert in tribal arts and aboriginal artefacts.
Mr Sumner, said that last calendar year Mossgreen finished with the highest total sales of Indigenous art for any auction house, through its two major single owner Indigenous art auctions – that of John Kluge (sold on behalf of Columbia University) and Ross and Rona Clarke. He said that the appointment fitted in well with the company's establishment in new premises as a growing multi-specialist operation.
The most significant trend in the industry has been a softening market and a reduction in the number of auctions. Mr Davidson told the Australian Art Sales Digest that he wanted to mount one big specialised sale a year under the title Australian Indigenous Art. He left Sotheby's before the job at Mossgreen became a proposition. He declined to elaborate but said he had a young family and liked a challenge.
