By Carolyn Webb
A Mirka Mora mural that once hung in a St Kilda restaurant is now in public hands after Heide Museum of Modern Art bought it at auction on Sunday for more than $70,000.
Untitled Mural, c1966, that Heide Museum of Modern Art has purchased for $77,500.
An ‘‘elated’’ Heide artistic director Lesley Harding paid tribute to art lovers who funded the purchase via crowdfunding.
An art consultant, on behalf of Heide, made the winning bid of $77,500 for Untitled Mural.
The sale eclipsed the previous $25,000 record sale of a Mirka Mora at auction.
The mixed media piece, depicting human faces, birds, fish and snakes, hung in Mirka and husband Georges’ Tolarno restaurant in the 1970s.
Hundreds of art collectors, and art lovers seeking their own piece of Mirka, as her son William put it, packed Leonard Joel’s South Yarra auction house over a marathon day-long sale of more than 700 lots from Mirka’s Richmond studio.
Art lovers queued to enter the auction, at Leonard Joel in South Yarra, of Mirka Mora's studio contents.Credit: Meredith O'Shea
Thousands more people pre-registered bids or bid online.
Another highlight was a soft sculpture entitled Good Morning Angel selling for $62,500, smashing its upper reserve price of $5000.
Lesley Harding from Heide said the purchase of the ‘‘important’’ former Tolarno mural was made possible by the Mirka for Melbourne crowdfunding campaign, hosted by the blog The Design Files.
The crowdfunding aimed to raise $100,000 to deliver key Mora works into public hands, but has now raised $200,000.
It enabled Heide to buy 31 art and personal pieces before the auction.
Ms Harding felt ‘‘elated and very excited’’ that Heide could buy about 12 more pieces at the auction, for its Mora collection.
She thanked ‘‘the people of Melbourne and beyond for their generous support of this campaign, especially the Design Files, for initiating it’’.
Kaye Duffy, of Parkville, who paid $38,000 (from a $5500 upper reserve) for the painting Winged Lovers, was ‘‘shellshocked but delighted’’ to own a collaboration piece by Mora and John Perceval.
Kaye Duffy bought the painting Winged Lovers, left, by Mirka Mora and John Perceval. Credit: Meredith O'Shea
Ollie Luciano, 42, of St Kilda, bought Mora’s Peugeot foldable bicycle, her tin bath and a wardrobe.
‘‘It’s just good to have something of Mirka’s; a sense of her,’’ he said.
He never met Mora, but believes her art is ‘‘beautiful’’ and watched her on TV.
"I fell in love with her. I loved her opinions. She was just a gorgeous lady."