A new auction record for the once-neglected Australian artist, Nora Heysen, was the highlight of Sunday’s buoyant sale of 76 lots from the estate of well-known Sydney-based collectors Fred and Elinor Wrobel.
Bonhams auction house had estimated the Heysen work, Self Portrait, 1936, would hammer in the region of $80,000 to $120,000. But the restrained and rather sombre picture stormed past expectation, hammering for $220,000 and costing its new owner a total of $270,600 once Bonhams 23 per cent buyer’s premium is factored in.
