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Tom Roberts

April

Uli Sigg is offloading his Howard Arkley. Asking price, $1m-plus

One of the world’s biggest art collectors is selling a brash work by one of Australia’s most in-demand artists. It could add up to a record price.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

March

Sirius Cove, 1895, by Arthur Streeton carries an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000 in Smith & Singer’s auction of Important Australian Art to be held in Sydney on April 8.

130 years on, Australian art history comes out of the woodwork

An Arthur Streeton painting of a hallowed art location and a canvas that rocketed Brett Whiteley towards his eventual fame will be auctioned in April.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

May 2024

Shanae and Jade, 2005, a LightJet print by Petrina Hecks, carried an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000 in Deutscher and Hackett’s Australian and International Fine Art online auction on 14 May 2024.

A little bird delivers record price for photographer

A bird in the hand might be worth two in the bush, but Petrina Hicks’ photo of a budgie in a girl’s mouth was worth plenty on an otherwise disappointing night.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

April 2024

Arthur Streeton’s Sunlight at the Camp is estimated to sell for between $1 million and $1.5 million.

Streeton stuns at $10m art auction

Arthur Streeton’s historic scene took top honours, but works by Bronwyn Oliver and Nicholas Harding were the big surprises.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
Cressida Campbell’s Burley Griffin House, Avalon, 1999, is a unique colour woodblock print on paper. It is estimated to fetch between $140,000 and $180,000 in Smith & Singer’s 17 April Important Australian Art auction in Sydney.

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.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
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November 2023

The Yarra near Heidelberg, 1891, by Arthur Streeton, hung for many decades in a NSW country homestead. The family, members of the famous Murdoch clan, are now selling. In oil on canvas, this work measures 31 x 46 cm and is estimated to fetch $150,000 to $250,000 through Davidson Auctions in Sydney on November 25.

Like ‘light fittings’: Murdoch family to sell underappreciated art

Three beguiling paintings that for generations hung in obscurity at a Murdoch family grazing property are expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

September 2023

Big Blue Lavendar Bay is carried into

Mystery of what happened to Andrew Pridham’s $2.5m ‘Whiteley’ solved

The investment banker and Sydney Swans chairman speaks for the first time about being duped in Australia’s biggest alleged art fraud.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

August 2023

Arthur Streeton’s Evening Game, 1889, painted when the artist was 22, debuted in the historically important exhibition, the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition, in Melbourne, 1889. The work in oil on cardboard is estimated at $400,000 to $600,000 in the catalogue for Smith & Singer’s August 23, 2023 auction in Sydney.

$600k for a small, ‘grotesque and meaningless’ painting?

Fred Williams might top Smith & Singer’s big mid-year sale of Australian and international art, but the more modest works have the most intriguing stories.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
John Peter Russell’s “Souvenir de Belle-Île”, 1897.

Impressionist Russell’s Souvenir tops $11m-plus sale

A work by the Australian painter who taught Impressionism to Matisse tops Deutscher and Hackett’s August sale, which could prove the biggest of the year so far.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

June 2023

Landcsape artist Fred Williams

The fascinating link between this Australian artist and a US heiress

An upcoming auction of a landscape work by Fred Williams uncovers an unexpected tie to the heir of the Life Savers confectionary fortune.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

November 2022

Lloyd Rees, Sydney - The Source, 1973, from the collection of Millie Phillips, being auctioned at Menzies next week with an estimate of $500,000 to $600,000.

Groundbreaking miner’s art collection goes under the hammer

‘Force of nature’ Millie Phillips was a pioneer for women in the mining industry and a dedicated collector of blue-chip Australian artists.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

March 2022

Jeffrey Smart, Dampier II, 1966-1967, estimate $350,000 to $450,000, being auctioned by Smith & Singer in Sydney on April 12.

The naked truth? Jeffrey Smart steps up again

Egged on by a National Gallery exhibition, buyers are spending up big on the modernist and a particularly personal work could be landing at just the right time.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

February 2022

The picturesque property was captured in a painting by Australian impressionist Tom Roberts in 1895.

Murdoch’s son-in-law adds $22m farm to cattle empire

Alasdair MacLeod, the son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch, has acquired a fourth property, Paradise Creek Station near Inverell for his Wilton Cattle Company.

  • Larry Schlesinger

November 2021

Clarice Beckett’s The Boat Sheds sold for $270,000 hammer on an estimate of $80,000 to $100,000, at Smith & Singer.

Art buyers just can’t get enough of Clarice Beckett

The new appreciation - and valuation - of Australian women artists continues apace, with nine new auction records.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

July 2021

Christopher Dresser toast rack, designed in 1878, sold for $12,000 (including buyer’s costs) at Shapiro last week, in what appears to be a new world record.

Charles Dresser toast rack sets new sales record

An 1878 silver-plated toast rack by Scottish industrial designer Charles Dresser sold for $12,000 in a week of competitive bidding at local auction houses.

  • Gabriella Coslovich
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March 2021

Indigenous art acid test and that Tom Roberts

The results of next week’s Deutscher and Hackett sale of Indigenous art are being closely watched, as is the mystery over Tom Roberts’ Portrait of a Lady.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

October 2020

Art auction season set for thrilling finale

With vendors reemerging and buyers apparently willing to spend up big, three big end-of-year sales promise to end the saleroom year with a bang.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

April 2020

These two rings consigned by Melbourne vendors had been in the family for at least 100 years, not realising that they were set with rare Kashmir sapphires.

Forgotten Kashmir sapphires promise $1m payday for Melbourne family

A Melbourne family didn't know its heirloom rings contained rare Kashmir gems. Now they're hoping precious stones are still seen as a safe haven investment.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

March 2020

Jack Britten Joolama, Purnululu (The Bungle Bungles), 1993, which sold for $36,000 hammer - $21,000 above its higher estimate.

Indigenous sale pops as art salerooms go online

As auction houses move to online and phone sales, Deutscher and Hackett saw strong local interest in Indigenous art.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

November 2019

John Brack's The Butcher’s Bouquet, is expected to fetch between $280,000 and $350,000.

Sotheby’s sale could hit $10m mark with big-ticket paintings

The auction house hopes to kick off the end-of-year sales with a bang as it brings several $1 million-plus Australian artworks to the market.

  • Peter Fish

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/tom-roberts-5mh