Howard Arkley dominates list of year’s top art sales
Languorous Lavender Bay on Sydney Harbour gave way to lurid Melbourne suburbia as Howard Arkley shouldered Brett Whiteley off the winner’s podium in the Australian art auction stakes this year.
With auctions all but over for 2025, the statistics tell the story of this year’s love affair with Arkley and his spray-painted odes to the modest brick homes of his Melbourne boyhood.
Two of Arkley’s paintings shared the top price paid for a work of art at auction in Australia this year, with collectors forking out $2.5 million for each of his paintings, Contemporary Units, 1988, and Neapolitan Delight, 1993.
These prices also set a new auction record for the late artist. (All prices in this report will include the buyer’s premium.)
John Peter Russell’s Portrait of Dodge Macknight, c.1888, achieved the third top price of $2,312,500 in a year when the market traded $148.49 million worth of art (as of December 10, with several smaller auctions still to take place).
Arkley also took out fourth and fifth spots in the rankings. The rest of the top 10 prices went to paintings by Arthur Boyd, Jeffrey Smart, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton and another work by Russell.
Arkley was the most traded artist by value this year, his works fetching a total of $10.5 million. Brett Whiteley was second with $8.4 million, followed by Arthur Boyd with $8.2 million.
For Deutscher + Hackett’s Damian Hackett, who sold Arkley’s Neapolitan Delight and two of the other Arkleys on the top 10 list, the success of the artist this year was generated by the high quality of the individual works on offer.
“To be honest there’s always been a demand for Arkley, or at least over the last 20 years,” Hackett said. “What he’s experienced this year is that some remarkable, amazing major works have been offered.”
Can the market expect more top-notch Arkleys to be offered next year?
“An exciting price does help to loosen up a hesitant vendor,” Hackett said. “There’s some absolutely fantastic works (by Arkley) out there.”