Tech magnate's Aboriginal art sale raises $1.55m

Peter Fish, Australian Financial Review, Wednesday 26 October 2016

Rover Thomas' large and important canvas Ruby Plains Massacre 1 fetched the top price at the sale of the collection of Silicon Valley technology magnate Steve Luczo, soaring above the other offerings to fetch $366,000 including premium.

The auction was at Deutscher and Hackett in Melbourne on October 19.

It grossed $1.55 million and was 89 per cent sold by volume.

Given a high level of overseas interest, Deutscher and Hackett executive director Damian Hackett says the picture, dating from 1985, could have fetched more were it not for the strictures of the Movable Cultural Heritage Act, which limits the export of Aboriginal works more than 20 years old and valued at more than $10,000. He believes the act, which is under review, is overdue for revision.

He says another early work, the catalogue cover, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa's Budgerigar Dreaming (Version 6), failed to sell largely for the same reason.

Luczo and his wife, children's book author and ballet supporter Agatha Luczo, were dispersing part of a collection acquired over 10 years.

Hackett says the collection had received great exposure in the United States, with much of it on show at Luzco's Seagate Technology and at his home. "It exposed his clients, staff and visitors to good examples of Australian Indigenous art," he says.

While the Rover Thomas made a solid price, its hammer price excluding the 22 per cent buyer's premium was $300,000, the same as the American collector paid when he bought it in November 2007.

Still, the price suggests a return to the status quo for Aboriginal art, after several years in which the market was hit by factors including the advent of the artist's resale right legislation, a change in the superannuation rules discouraging art investment, and a surge in the Australian dollar.

There were strong prices elsewhere in the sale.

PAINTINGS IN DEMAND

Selling for well above the upper estimates were Papunya Tula artists Naata Nungurrayi's The Soakage Water Site of Unkunya … which brought $146,400, the second highest price of the day, on an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000, and Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra's Hunting from 1971, which sold for $61,000 ($30,00 to $40,000).

But the Nungurrayi fell short of the record $216,000 Luczo paid for it at Sotheby's sale of the Laverty collection in 2007.

Strong prices were recorded for Daniel Walbidi's All the Jila at $47,580 and Jan Billycan's Kirriwirri, a suite of five works that brought $39,040.

Tiwi artist Timothy Cook's hefty Kulama set a new artist record at $24,400, more than three times his previous highest price. Bill Whiskey's Tjapaltjarri's Rock Holes and Country near the Olgas stood out with $40,260 (estimate $25,000 to $35,000) while Warrlimpiringa Tjapaltjarri's Marawa fetched $20,740 ($4000 to $6000).

Worth noting at the lower end of prices were Margaret Baragurra's Galli Galliat$9150 (estimate $4000 to $6000) and Betsy Lewis Napangardi's Mina Mina Jukurpa (Women's Dreaming – Karlangu) at $6710 ($2000 to $3000).

A number of works changed hands well below estimate, suggesting they were offered without reserve. They included Pukara by the Spinifex Artists Men's Collaborative at $11,590 and Walangkura Napanangka's Ngaminya at $12,200.

Hackett says Luzco and his curator, Blair Hartzell, who visited Australia for the sale, were "relaxed" on reserves. "Most of it was on the market for much lower than the estimates," he says.

The Luczo pictures were well presented, with most having a neat wood frame. Many Aboriginal paintings, even expensive ones, are sold tacked onto a crude mount, showing daubs of paint at the edges.

There were no big surprises among the wooden sculptures, with the best price $29,280 for Tiwi artist Enraeld Munkara's 51-centimetre double-sided figure of Bima and Purukapali, which was once in the Wesfarmers collection. It brought $29,280. The figure last changed hands in the saleroom for $13,800 at Sotheby's in Sydney in November 1997, though it did not pass into Luczo's hands until some years later.

Among the central Arnhem Land sculpture was an anonymous Docker River region ceremonial figure that brought $21,960 and Tom Djawa's Untitled (Ceremonial Mokuy Figure) that sold for $20,740.

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