Showing a ballroom contest involving some fancy foot work – not uncommon in the saleroom -John Brack's Backs and Fronts, made $1.84 million.
This represented a big loss on the figure recorded when it last appeared on the market in June 2010 of $2.16 million.
It was the work's sixth appearance at auction since November 1997 when it had made $239,000.
No one was able to live with the lurid pink and purple pantied (sic) dancers for too long – or maybe someone just had not been able to sell it!
Pink and purple however are the colours which decades ago were favourites as they were the colour of riverbank sunsets.
The 2013 big ticket list was far more impressive with three works at around $2 million or more and one, Whiteley's My Armchair making $3.93 million.
Like the Brack, this work was also offered at Menzies which regained its leadership of the art auction market this year after losing out to Bonhams in 2013, which in that year had sold the $19 million Grundy collection.
There were some lots for which the music did not change. The most stable in real money terms was at Sotheby's where Tom Roberts Portrait of Minna Simpson sold for $976,000.
Like the Brack's performance over the long term, but without the saleroom sidesteps, this painting of a pretty little girl in a mop cap with a cat had done well, for it was last offered for auction at Christie's in 1988 when it sold for $254,545.
There was very special competition for it this time around, as it was bought by the National Gallery of Australia's Council to honour the director of the NGA, Mr Ron Radford, who has moved on.
The gallery was coincidentally also the source of some dispiriting news during the year with the return of an Indian bronze sculptural antiquity to the land of its origin because of the claim that it had been illegally exported.
Donors of the $5 million to buy the sculpture years ago must have been very dispirited and potential new donors discouraged.
Mr Radford will be missed by an art market which has benefited substantially from his eager buying from the bottom to the top of a collection which he clearly loved greatly and will miss.
If not " horribilis" in the saleroom there was not too much "mirabilis" about the annus 2014 either. The "stolen bronze" story topped a heap of bad news emanating from the Australian art scene this year.
There was a bitter legal stoush involving a fake Albert Tucker in which the activities and roles of art consultants and auction houses came under scrutiny.
The long term results of this obviously should be a plus, leading to greater transparency.
The fake Whiteley saga which might on its own, have stunted growth in the market place is over, and those burned by it such as John Playfoot appeared to be phasing down their activities.
Average prices fell. Of the 16,886 works offered at auctions covered by the Australian Art Sales Digest, the average price fell from $10,487 to $9340 with 11,369 of the 16,886 works offered selling.
Slightly more of those offered sold in 2014 compared with 2013. The percentage of works sold was 67% in 2014, compared with 65% in 2013.
Nowhere was there any suggestion of wealth trickling upwards due to what economists and sociologists appear to be agree is a growing trend to inequality in society.
On the contrary, in global terms the top end is beginning to take a hit with the Russian petro-tsars, the biggest trophy collectors and conspicuous consumers, down on their luck even before the current slashed oil price.
One Australian seller now looks lucky to have sold an inherited Russian painting in London before the present crisis. *
It had failed to sell in Australia contrary to a trend noticed at Deutscher and Hackett when a work by the Japanese artist was bought by "a private Australian" collector against keen competition from overseas buyers.
The painting, Infinity Dots by Yayoi Kusama sold for $492,000 to an Australian private collector against keen competition from overseas.
Overseas participation has been eased by the Internet which some claim has changed the thrust of auctions. It slightly delays sales but it also keeps people away. Attendance at sales during the year in Australia was not outstanding – there was nothing like the Grundy collection to pull in the punters.
Anecdotally, Australian collectors have been buying international art overseas, often doing it themselves and on their own intuition. Given the current debate on wealth inequality around the world they are likely to be very closeted.
Also anecdotally, although a few examples have come to light, the trend towards private treaty sales has been on the increase partly for the same sociological reason. Also, an art work which fails to sell at auction acquires the kiss of death of rejection.
The market appeared better able to absorb paintings by Brett Whiteley (second to John Brack) who has taken over leadership from Fred Williams who with John Brack has dominated previous years sales.
Whiteley was less productive than Smart in graphic art reflected in the $12.40 million spent this year on the 98 works.
Smart was the second most financially appreciated artist of the year at $7.92 million for 36 works.
Now able to butter up its clients over cream teas – its auction complex redevelopment included a posh restaurant - Mossgreen's activity in the guarantee department was noted with the company's activity in the Impressionist department which has been one of its new head of art John Dwyer's fortes.
This market flourished at auctions at the Malvern Town Hall more than three decades ago when Dwyer was assistant to his father Paul, at Leonard Joels, but now might need a guarantee or the excuse of a going away tribute (as in Radford's Tom Robert) to seriously fire.
The other early artist to do so consistently, and helping maintain some stability at the top end of the market is Eugene von Guerard who came in 10th this year in the most highly capitalised artist's stakes, with just on 10 sales.
Von Guerrard is beloved of collectors who like to see art in a global context, his painstaking angst being appreciated in the past by Lord Lloyd Webber in particular.
Trophy art, however, appears unlikely to attract the competition it used to.
Almost unnoticed, a sheik from Qatar, the state to which many of the world's unexplained big purchases, including one of Cezanne's iconic Card Players, has died.
The big new hits were artists' portraits while art by women was perceptibly strong but market share was shaved a little on last years figure. In 2014 it was about 10 per cent of the total offering by value sold.
Although nowhere near the best prices she has made in the past, Emily Kngwarreye kept the flag flying for Aboriginal art with Untitled (Alhalkerre), 1995making the best price of any Aboriginal art work of known authorship at $216,000.
Smart's Self Portrait at Papini's sold for an incredible $1.26 million at Deutscher and Hackett, creating an auction record for the artist.
Ken Unsworth, an oil and wax on linen by John Beard sold for a fierce $110,455 at Menzies.
The Charge at Beersheeba by Ivor Hele sold for $98,182 at Menzies in the wake of the World War I centenary commemoration.
The Window by Grace Cossington Smith sold for $671,600 at Sotheby's.
With no Grundy collection this time, Bonhams lost its staggering 30 per cent share of the market from 2013, holding on to 8 per cent of the market largely through the help of its great backstop, consignments from the Sidney Nolan Trust.
Menzies Art Brands, an energetically creative player in the market, and from whom some patrons received generous Christmas hampers rather than cream teas, lifted its turnover from $19.24 million to $32.41 million with the associated Lawson Menzies (now rationalised into the group) also producing an additional sum. Menzies Art Brands achieved a 37 per cent market share.
Another winner was Mossgreen , with art auction sales for Mossgreen increasing from $2.7 million in 2013 to $9.1 million in 2014.
Sotheby's Australia art auction sales totalled $18.38 million, compared with $15.22 million previously, the 25% lift in turnover giving it an 18% share of the art auction market.
Deutscher and Hackett auction sales totalled $16.64 million in 2014, losing a little ground on its $17.36 million in 2013, securing a 16% market share compared with 17% in 2013.
Leonard Joel claimed a 5 per cent market share with sales of $5.14 million.
Total art auction turnover was also reduced by the failure of Christie's London to hold its usual annual sale of Australian art this year.
Across the ditch the auction industry was shaken by events announcements from Mowbray Collectables relating to a $NZ1.9 million loss, the worst in its history.
This was attributed in part to particularly poor performance at Peter Webb Galleries in Auckland.
Total New Zealand sales eased a little, down from $NZ20.47 million to $19.98 million with a few more works added at 6810 offered (6755 previously) and the average price per lot falling from $NZ4599 to $NZ4309.
The Art Gallery of NSW is looking to buy a maths work subject by Colin McCahon for $2 million, but if it goes through it will be a private treaty sale from the artist's estate.
That is being done by one of the galleries in the Trumper Park area of Paddington.
