D+H TOPS THE NOVEMBER FINE ART AUCTION ROUND AND EXTENDS 2025 MARKET LEADERSHIP
Continuing its commitment to offering outstanding examples of important Australian and International art, Deutscher and Hackett’s final live auction for the year achieved the highest November auction round total of $11.2 million (inc. BP + GST) – thus confirming the firm’s 2025 market leadership with its annual auction sales totalling over $40 million.
Witnessing a packed auction room and enthusiastic bidding across all platforms, the carefully considered selection of 59 lots was keenly contested, resulting in the top-end industry leading clearance rates of 113% by value and 85% by volume.
Importantly, three works achieved results of over $1.5 million each, attesting to the continued demand for museum-quality examples at the top-end of the market across all periods of Australian art. Much admired by Vincent Van Gogh during his lifetime (and many collectors during D+H viewings prior to the auction), the luminous Portrait of Dodge Macknight, c.1888 by Australia’s ‘lost impressionist’ John Peter Russell, sold for an impressive $2,312,500 (inc. BP + GST), while Jeffrey Smart’s iconic Night Stop, Bombay, 1981 realised $1,625,000 (inc. BP + GST) – the second highest price achieved at auction for the artist – and Howard Arkley’s monumental The Freeway, 1999, commissioned by Roger Wood and Randal Marsh of Wood Marsh Architecture after their receipt of the Victorian Architecture Medal for Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway extension, sold for $1,875,000 (inc. BP + GST).
Other highlights included a second major work by Arkley encapsulating his distinctly pop sensibility in an exuberant house exterior, O.Y.O. Flats, 1987, which achieved $937,500 (inc. BP + GST); John Olsen’s pulsating Flooded River, Kimberley, 1983 sold for $450,000 (inc. BP + GST); and Cressida Campbell’s stunning tablescape Bougainvillea, 2003 sold for $275,000 (inc. BP + GST).
TOP 5 RESULTS
John Peter Russell
Portrait of Dodge Macknight, c.1888
EST: $1,000,000 – $1,500,000
Sold for $ 2,312,500 (inc. BP + GST)
Howard Arkley
The freeway, 1999
ESTIMATE: $1,500,000 – $2,000,000
Sold for $ 1,875,000 (inc. BP + GST)
Jeffrey Smart
Night stop, Bombay, 1981
ESTIMATE: $1,400,000 – $1,800,000
Sold for $ 1,625,000 (inc. BP + GST)
Howard Arkley
O.Y.O. Flats, 1987
EST: $800,000 – $1,200,000
Sold for $ 937,500 (inc. BP + GST)
John Olsen
Flooded river, Kimberley, 1983
ESTIMATE: $180,000 – $240,000
Sold for $ 450,000 (inc. BP + GST)