Big-ticket items often get most of the attention at art auctions. Works by the likes of Smart, Streeton, Whiteley, Williams. But go looking beyond these towering figures, go wandering through the underbrush so to speak, and you may find historical gems and remarkable stories. Deutscher and Hackett’s auction next Wednesday in Sydney is a good example. Major paintings from the Clemenger Collection will no doubt be highly contested by bidders; Jeffrey Smart’s portrait of Germaine Greer, Brett Whiteley’s self-portrait with real hair, Fred William’s sumptuously minimal Lysterfield landscape.