Sulich presided over nine consignments from Australia to Hong Kong which grossed more than $HK10.5 million ($AUD 1.5 million) in November.
Sulich replaced Mr McIlroy as the face of Christie's in Australia in 2006 when the global auction house decided to quit auctioning in Australia in favour of a representative presence here.
McIlroy has since worked as an art consultant and dealer, initially in conjunction with Lady Angela Nevill in London.
He took sales in Singapore and Hong Kong for Christie's and lately he has been auctioning Australian art in Australia for Deutscher and Hackett. He has now added a further arrow to his bow by joining pay-TV aspirant Apollo TV.
McIlroy lost his lead role in the local auction industry in 2006 when Christie's decided to leave Australia for more promising her markets overseas despite its history of half a century Down Under.
This was an especially big disappointment for Christie's staff including McIlroy as the last sale, of the Bill Burge collection of abstract art and sculpture, was possibly the most successful in Australia.
German- owned Apollo TV which is based in Berlin is setting up a global TV arts channel which it hopes to place prominently with cable and satellite TV servers. Its website says it is "led by an international team that embodies decades of leadership and experience in its respective fields."
The CEO is Ralph Siebenhaler, one of five members of the “executive team.” The channel's focus is art, literature, music, technology and financial services.
McIlroy told Australian Art Sales Digest's Terry Ingram that the project was in its early days but his anticipated input derives from his close association over several decades with the rising Asian art market.
He joins the advisory board which includes Frank Briegmann who is CEO of Universal Music; Lito Manacho who is managing director of Credit Suisse Singapore; Ayesh Parekh, the founder of Apollo TV, and Varsha Rao a new media specialist.
The strong Indian presence in the operation through Parekh suggest current developments in the Indian art market will be of special interest to it. Christie's holds its first auction of contemporary Indian art in Mumbai, this week.
In the 1990s Christie's Australia held special sales of collectables in Melbourne which included Indian art under the aegis of Michael Ludgrove. These were not well received and Mr Ludgrove left the company for foreign fields. The market for contemporary Indian art was also then in its infancy.
Christie's followed Sotheby's with a brief flirtation with auctioning in India but concentrated principally on the Indian art market in New York.
Sale of potentially highly lucrative Indian antiquities were impossible in India due to export restrictions and tomb robbery creating such impasses as highlighted by the recent dispute involving the dealer-seller and the National Gallery of Australia over an Indian bronze.
As in New Zealand with Maori artefacts, the most sought after Indian antiquities tend to be restricted items even when legally owned.
The bureaucracy and red tape in India coupled with a rupee of limited convertibility resulted in Sotheby's discontinuing auctions after its first auction's very limited success. Living Indian artists were aghast at the low prices paid at the auction, which I attended, for their art until they found out that the art had not been sold but passed in. This was due to their unfamiliarity with Sotheby's auction practices then.
Some of the best-selling art was by the Victorian “Australian” artist Abbey Altson but this market in languorous ladies with veils is not so closely followed nowadays.
If the Christie's auctions take off, the company will be looking to Sulich to point the best of Indian art to these sales. The Indian economy, which is not firing as well as hoped, remains the black spot.
The Australian consignments to the latest round of Hong Kong sales sourced from Australian vendors (private collectors) included four paintings by Lin Fenmian (1900-1991), three textiles and a brushpot.
Fenmian is most sought after of the great 20th century classic masters.
The two paintings which fired were catalogued as acquired by the present owner's father directly from the artist in Shanghai between 1949 and 1960 and thence by descent.
Both parents of the owner took painting lessons from Lin Fengmian until early 1960s and they knew the artist very well, the catalogue said.
Estimated to make $HK1.8 million to $2.2 million, his Seated Lady made $HK2.92 million against $HK1.8 million low estimate, while the scroll Girl on a Boat with Cormorants estimated at $HK700,000 to 900,000 made $HK1.48 million.
A rare imperial embroidered Kesi 12 symbol dragon robe of the Jiaqing-Daoguang period made $HK875,000 against estimates of $HK400,000 to $HK600,000.
A very rare cinquefoil stoneware brush washer from the Yuan Ming Dynasty only 7.5 cm wide made $HK3.76 million against estimates of $HK200,000 to $HK300,000.
The provenance was a private collection, purchased at the sale of collection of (British Tobacco heiress) Madame Christian Rowe Thornett, which I also attended. It was held by F.R. Strange, Sydney, 31 May 1972.
Although publicised before the sale, in the reported auction results the highest price was $3,500 for a set of eight Georgian silver plates.
