It is also a coup for Sotheby's Australia, which on every major communication is at pains under its licence agreement, to insist it is unrelated to the international Sotheby's Group.
This is possibly why it made an announcement this week of the sale with the unusual naming of the vendor client, Mrs Phynea Paroulakis (nee Paspali) as the consignor of the panels, to show that it can obtain high prices for Chinese art on behalf of wealthy Australian clients.
The Paspali – Paroulakis family has made at least one appearance in the BRW top 200 list towards the top.
Sotheby's Australia should obtain a tidy commission on the sale and will be looking for more.
Chinese art is an area in which it has great expertise in consultant Ann Roberts whose Asian art insights especially in ceramics has been valued by various Sotheby's entities since the 1970s.
The sale is a reminder of the coup Mr Tim Goodman made when he bought or leased the brand in 2009 and Mr Geoffrey Smith and Gary Singer in securing control of it from him.
The consignment is a wondrous work by an outstanding figure in the history of Chinese art.
The four panels, each measuring 75 cm high and 19.7 cm wide, are by Wang Qi (1884-1937) and were consigned to New York with an estimate of $US500,000 to $US700,000.
The Australian resident, Phynea Paroulakis of Sydney agreed to consign them to New York after Sotheby's Australia consulted its international colleagues, Sotheby's Australia says.
The catalogue of the sale on March 18 states the previous owner purchased them in 1973, from Eileen Kershaw Antiques in Hong Kong.
Each panel portrays the Immortals in a landscape painted in a refined palette.
Wang Qi, the artist, was a founding member of a celebrated eight member group called the Yueman Hui or Full Moon Society .
The panels are described as an example of Wang Qi's mature style which can be traced to a trip made to Shanghai in 1917. Typical of this style is the use of rapid and expressionistic brush strokes to create whimsical exaggerated figures with sparse backgrounds juxtaposed with long calligraphic inscriptions.
The figure achieved by Sotheby's is not at all exaggerated. It will now translated into many more Australian dollars for the Paspalis thanks to the fall in the Australian dollar.
New York was seen as the obvious location for the sale because of its centrality to its traditionally more learned taste in Chinese antiques.
The sale therefore also did not rely so much on the rise of new money, as many recent sales have done.
Footnote:
The Eight Immortals are a group of legendary saints in Chinese mythology revered by the Taoists.
Famille is an opaque pink-carmine overglaze.
Sotheby's Australia web site states that:
"Sotheby's Australia is a trademark used under licence from Sotheby's. Second East Auction Holdings is independent of the Sotheby's Group.
The Sotheby's Group is not responsible for the acts or omissions of Second East Auction Holdings Pty Ltd"
