June 2024
Fine art collection of late Ron Walker to fetch up to $8m
He helped build modern Melbourne but the works that hung in his Toorak mansion, and are now for sale, had a very Sydney flavour.
Big name Indigenous artists bring the love to Redfern
A high-end auction brings Indigenous art to the people, while Menzies hopes Kirk Douglas can be their hero.
May 2024
Australia’s best art auction result in 17 years
Bullish bidders dropped $17 million on Impressionists, Whiteleys and others at the strongest result for a mixed vendor sale since the heady pre-GFC days of 2007.
April 2024
Streeton, Campbell works promise hefty returns in $12m art sale
An Arthur Streeton painting bought for £7 has hopes of $1.5 million at the year’s first big sale.
December 2023
Art sales top $140m but it’s a buyers’ market now
Australian art auction houses largely defied inflation, interest rates and conflict, but the pandemic-era surge has run its course.
November 2023
Antipodeans old and new carry hopes at end-of-year sales
Smith & Singer is hoping to end the year with a bang to trump Deutscher and Hackett as the top-selling auction house of the year.
September 2023
Sketchbook found behind a bookshelf expected to clean up
Works by Lyonel Feininger have sold for up to $36.2 million, so a book with his works discovered in a Sydney retirement village is set to attract plenty of interest.
May 2023
How Smith & Singer’s big Sydney sale failed to fire
The sale was meant to be one of the biggest of the year, but several of the most highly priced works failed to sell.
April 2023
Olsen, Arkley and other art stars headline $10m sale
How the market reacts to John Olsen’s death will be tested when he joins a who’s who of modern Australian art - and a few Lucian Freuds - in Smith & Singer’s sale.
March 2022
Brisbane set for biggest art sale in decades
The collection of Jewish refugees Doc and Fritzi Hirst includes works by a who’s who of Australian modern art.
November 2021
NAB to sell 2500-work corporate art collection
The bank expects to make $10 million from its vast collection of mainly 1970s Australian art and will put the money into climate resilience programs.
May 2021
Banksy print bought for $300 selling for over $100k
As another Smith & Singer specialist exits, one small-time collector is hoping for a tidy return from a print bought at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art store.
April 2021
Guilty verdict in Melbourne fake art scam
One of the associates of “notorious” Melbourne art dealer Peter Gant has been found guilty of misleading or deceptive conduct in a failed investment scheme that used a cache of fake art as security.
He said, ‘You should invest, I’ll help you out’
When a friend suggested an art investment scheme that returned 20 per cent a year, it seemed an ideal opportunity. But seven years later the claims, like the art, have failed to deliver.
March 2021
Lucio dishes up 40 years of art morsels
For decades restaurateur Lucio Galletto shared a love of food, art and conviviality with some of Australia’s most famous artists. On Sunday he’s selling their gifts.
December 2019
Magic millions pay off for art auctioneers
Million-dollar sales like John Brack’s Yellow Legs are increasingly keeping auction houses in clover.
June 2019
Arkley interior set to kickstart auction season
A typically bright Howard Arkley painting of a living room is set to test the artist's record price when it kicks of the winter auction season at Menzies.
May 2019
Blackman's Dreaming Alice finds a buyer
A bargain hunter has managed to secure Charles Blackman’s Dreaming Alice after it was unsold at the big art auctions last month in Sydney.
March 2019
'Museum quality’ Fairweather heads for $1m
A rare painting from Ian Fairweather will be one of the top lots at Deutscher and Hackett's April sale of Australian art.
Alices go head to head in battle of the Blackmans
Sotheby's joins Deutscher and Hackett in offering a John Blackman with million-dollar expectations at April's auctions of Australian art.