Artist David Hockney left $10k sketch in Beppi’s Sydney restaurant

A sketch by legendary British artist David Hockney – who this year broke all records in Europe when he sold his iconic work The Splash for just over $40 million – has been discovered in an unlikely corner of a famed Sydney restaurant.

Legendary British artist David Hockney. Photo: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima

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A sketch by legendary British artist David Hockney — who this year broke all records in Europe when he sold his work The Splash for just over $40 million — has been discovered in an unlikely corner of a famed Sydney restaurant.

Beppi’s owner Marc Polese has revealed he discovered the quaint Hockney sketch last week while thumbing through one of the Darlinghurst eateries’ many old autograph books as he searched for content for the restaurant’s Instagram page.

The sketch by David Hockney found in the autograph book at Beppi's in Darlinghurst.

“I was just looking for things to share on social media,” says Polese, who came across several sketches and doodles from other well-known artists collected over the restaurant’s six decades.

Among them a two-page drawing by iconic Aussie expressionist Russell Drysdale, as well as a doodle by figurative artist Charles Blackman and an elaborate signature and print (sticky-taped to a page) by the late Bulgarian art legend Christo.

But it is the sketch by Hockney — a pen-on-paper drawing of what appears to be the remains of a sumptuous meal dated 1993 — that that could generate genuine international interest according to one Sydney art appraiser who has described the find as “significant”.

Another sketch by Russell Drysdale found in the autograph book at Beppi's.

“It’s fairly extraordinary for a number of reasons … one being the fact that Hockney very rarely gives his art away for free,” says art expert David Hulme of Banziger Hulme Fine Art Consultants.

“The other reason is that it is quite an involved sketch with some really lovely detail and it is signed and very clearly dated.”

Hockney, who is widely regarded as Britain’s greatest living artist following the death of Lucian Freud in 2011, dined at Beppi’s in 1993 during a visit to Australia to promote his autobiography That’s The Way I See It.

An elaborate signature and print (sticky-taped to a page) by the late Bulgarian art legend Christo.

His late-night doodle, says Hulme, could be worth at least $10,000 but potentially much more.

“Even the most basic Hockney sketches start at $10,000 in the current market. So something like this, with the date and the detail … you just don’t know where it could go.”

However Polese, who now keeps the autograph books under lock and key in a safety deposit box, says he has no plans to ‘hock off’ the sketch but instead is considering displaying some of his astounding finds (which also includes a sketch of a piano by Billy Joel and a self- portrait by actor Carol Burnett) on the wall of the restaurant.

“That might be something I’d consider,” said Polese.

“But there’s also something lovely about keeping them all together in the book so I’m not sure what we will do.”