The 2023 Australian art auction market largely defied rampant inflation, high interest rates and worsening global armed conflict, with sales to total $140 million by the time the last few bids are made at the end of next week.

This is roughly equal to last year’s sales total of $143.93 million, an unusual year in which art works from the collections of Cbus super fund and National Australia Bank were sold for a combined total of more than $20 million. But it’s still short of the pre-GFC record year of 2007, when $176 million in art was bought across the auction houses.