about us

Deutscher and Hackett is a leading Australian fine art auction house with a strong reputation for quality, experience and outstanding results. Directors Chris Deutscher and Damian Hackett have extensive knowledge and understanding of the art market with decades of combined experience in the art auction and commercial gallery sectors.

Today, Deutscher and Hackett continues this tradition of expertise and excellence with major auctions of Australian and International Art including Colonial, Modern and Contemporary works and sales of Indigenous Australian and Oceanic Art. These auctions attract important individual works of art and significant corporate and private art collections. Our auction previews and special exhibitions are held in our purpose-built, centrally located exhibition galleries in Melbourne and Sydney.

Having formed many longstanding and trusting client relationships both private and public, we continually reach out to new buyers and sellers of art. We present a wide range of paintings, works on paper and sculpture both in terms of chronology and value and our client database has grown to reflect this broad approach. One of our main aims is to ensure our clients have a positive experience from the point of consignment through to settlement of their proceeds of sale.

MARKET LEADERS IN CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT AND HIGHER VALUE AUSTRALIAN AND INTERNATIONAL WORKS

In 2025, D+H consolidated its market-leading reputation for handling culturally significant, higher-value Australian and International works – with the firm selling an impressive total of six paintings over $1M+, and achieving the highest price at auction for the fifth consecutive year.

2021 – Arthur Streeton, Grand Canal, 1908, sold for $3,068,000 (inc. BP)
2022 – Fred Williams, Lysterfield Landscape, 1968 – 69, sold for $2,332,000 (inc. BP)
2023 – John Peter Russell, Souvenir de Belle-Île (Marianna Russell with Goats, Goulphar, Belle-Île), 1897, sold for $3,927,273 (inc. BP)
2024 – John Peter Russell, Cruach En Mahr, Belle-Île-En-Mer, c.1905, sold for $3,927,273 (inc. BP)
2025 – Howard Arkley, Neapolitan Delight, 1993, sold for $2,454,545 (equal highest price for 2025)

Significantly, in April 2024, D+H realised the then-highest total turnover for a single mixed-vendor auction in Australia over the past 17 years, achieving more than $16.5M across the 55 lots offered.

Emerging once again as market leaders at the conclusion of the 2025 auction year, Deutscher and Hackett’s total auction turnover since the beginning of 2020 now sits at an outstanding $250M – $20M ahead of its nearest rival – thus decisively placing the firm and its expertise at the forefront of Australian and International consignments.

With the largest and most experienced team of six fine art specialists, known for their integrity, expertise and commitment, we are pleased to offer complimentary appraisal services and to assist with all aspects of the consignment and selling process.

We warmly invite you to contact us to discuss ways in which Deutscher and Hackett may assist you now and in the future.

Reflecting our highly esteemed reputation within the industry, together with the firm’s ongoing business stability and consistently strong performance, Deutscher and Hackett is proud to have been entrusted with the sale of several major corporate collections over the past decade.

Indeed, following the successful sale of works from corporate collections such as Wesfarmers in 2013; Artbank in 2018; and the Commonwealth Bank in 2019 and 2020, more recently Deutscher and Hackett was selected from a competitive tender process by the National Bank of Australia to manage the sale of its extensive art collection. Celebrating the incredible diversity and complexity of art expression in Australia during the 1970s, the NAB Art Collection represented one of the country’s largest high-profile corporate art holdings. Achieving over $10.5million for a select group of ninety ‘Highlights from the NAB Art Collection’ offered in February 2022, Deutscher and Hackett subsequently proceeded to manage the sale of the remainder of the collection through auction house Leonard Joel over the following 12 months to realise a total turnover of nearly $13.5 million –the proceeds of which are currently being directed back into the community through the work of the NAB Foundation. Significantly, the ‘Highlights from the NAB Collection’ auction hosted by Deutscher and Hackett witnessed clearance rates among the highest ever achieved by an art auction house in this country, with an elevated 192% by value and 99% by volume.

In July 2022, again after a rigorous selection process, Deutscher and Hackett also earned the honour of handling the sale of one of the country’s most impressive and widely-exhibited art holdings – the CBUS Collection of Australian Art. Spanning 160 years of Australia’s rich cultural heritage from colonial through to contemporary, the CBUS Collection was established in 1992 following a collaboration with legendary artworld figures, Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE and Professor Bernard Smith, and accordingly featured major works by the greats of Australian art history. Offering the Collection over a series of four auctions which attracted record-high viewing attendances in Sydney and Melbourne and spirited bidding across all platforms, Deutscher and Hackett notably achieved a total turnover of over $11.5 million for the Australian superannuation fund.