Australia

IT was a sale tipped to defy a generally lacklustre market, and boy did it deliver! Some 590 items from the estate of Dr Ann Lewis were auctioned by Mossgreen on November 7 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.

DESPITE the uncertain economic conditions that have cooled the art market in Australia, last month saw a new high for one the country’s most highly regarded artists.

ICONIC is the only word to describe two gold medals offered at a recent sale by Noble Numismatics of Melbourne, Australia.

THE Australian art and antiques industry has formed its own version of the British Art Market Federation following what it calls “several years of uncertainty in the Australian art market”.

THE contstant jockeying for position in the Australian art and antiques auctions market continues with the appointment of Mark Fraser as chairman of Bonhams Australia with immediate effect.

REPORTS from Christchurch in New Zealand reveal that an antiques dealer is appealing for help to retrieve his stock before the army demolishes his damaged shop.

A PICTURE discovered in a Suffolk village has sold for Aus$132,000 (£85,715) in Bonhams' saleroom in Sydney, Australia.

AUSTRALIAN dealers and auctioneers are joining forces to fight the current Artist’s Resale Right scheme introduced to the country seven months ago.

AFTER just one year at the helm of Sotheby’s Australia, Tim Goodman has retired as chairman and principal shareholder.

CONFIRMING their intentions in the Australian market, Bonhams have launched an Aboriginal art department in Sydney.

IT measures over 11ft (3.4m) wide and stands 11ft 6in (3.5m) high, was built in Melbourne and is carved over the entire surface with figure and details emblematic of the foundation and history of the state of Victoria.

THEODORE Bruce Auctions, based in Adelaide since the 19th century, have established a “mid-tier” saleroom in Sydney.

DEALERS Down Under have successfully fought off the recommendations of a government report that threatened to disrupt the status quo in the Australian art market.

THE Viennese mahogany commode, pictured here at the top, has undergone a remarkable transformation since it sold along with its companion pair at auction in 1993 as part of the Thurn and Taxis sale.

INVESTORS and artists in Australia are in uproar at proposals to ban self-managed pensions from putting their money in art.

BONHAMS have secured a major art collection that puts them squarely at the centre of the Australian auctions scene once more.

SYDNEY auction house Menzies Arts Brands recorded the highest price ever paid for an Australian artwork when Sidney Nolan's First Class Marksman 1946 sold to an anonymous phone bidder for Aus$4.5m (£2.9m) at their latest sale.

AUSTRALIA has reversed its previous government’s decision and introduced its own version of the Artist’s Resale Right.

IT’S all change among Australia’s leading auctioneers as Goodmans, linked to Bonhams since 2003, are to adopt the Sotheby’s brand instead.

Leonard Joel auctioneers of Melbourne, Australia, are appealing to vendors to consign art, antiques and jewellery to auction and donate the proceeds to the Victorian Disaster Appeal to help victims of the Victorian bushfires.