A Margaret Preston still life withdrawn from a Menzies auction in March last year after questions were raised about its style and origins has resurfaced and caught out another auction house. The painting, of a floral bouquet, supposedly created in the early 1920s, was the top lot in an August online sale being run by the country’s newest auction house, Brisbane-based Artmarketspace. The company had estimated the work at $55,000 to $75,000 and claimed that it featured in Preston’s catalogue raisonne.

But after being tipped off that the painting could be problematic, Saleroom consulted with experts of Preston’s work who confirmed that the still life was not listed in the artist’s catalogue raisonne, nor did it show up in an archival search across a range of institutional holdings. When Saleroom advised Artmarketspace’s chief executive officer Lee Steer of the anomaly, he was surprised, grateful, “extremely pissed off”, and said the painting would be removed from sale.