10 December 2020
Media
Gabriella Coslovich, Australian Financial Review, 10 December 2020
A pandemic, a punch-up, a chute of new records, and a toppling at the top. It’s been a year like no other for Australia’s art auction industry, a year of operatic proportions that drifted at times into soap opera, a year of rapid change and adaptation. The single greatest shift was one experienced across many industries. The internet morphed into a lifeline for auction houses and a virtual mall for captive and cashed-up buyers hungry for a retail hit.
“Remote auctions” became the norm, and collectors grew comfortable bidding big online.
A year ago a $2 million internet bid would have been unimaginablebid via internet for Russell Drysdale’s 1941 painting Going to the Pictures at Deutscher and Hackett’s live auction in Melbourne in Novemberwhich claimed that the work had once belonged to golfing great Greg Normanskirmish that occurred at Smith & Singer’s Sydney office in March between office manager David Mackay and outgoing jewellery specialist Hamish Sharmacirculating CCTV footage of the tussleMr Sharma defected to Leonard Joelhis latest, on Tuesday nightHenri’s ArmchairAustralia’s most expensive painting sold at auctionMenzies’ chief executive officer Coralie StowSotheby’s held its second dedicated auction of Aboriginal Artits first exhibition in Hong Kongbest comeback attempt was Paul SumnerVIEW THE FULL ARTICLE
