A few years ago, 30 people at a major fine art auction, like at the Smith and Singer sale on Wednesday evening, September 2, would have looked like a looming disaster. However, stand-in auctioneer, Stuart Davies, chief auctioneer of Sotheby’s International Realty, assured the audience that they were prepared for a large number of phone and internet bidders – which has become the new norm...
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Media articles
Media articles about the art market, Banziger Hulme Fine Art and other art-related topics.
Successful Start for Smith & Singer
Of late, there has been much discussion about the success of online art sales at lower levels of the market. However, we have been holding our breath for the most important test, at the top end of the Australian art market. Would that confidence extend to the highest echelon of art buyers prepared to spend several hundred thousands of dollars? The first major art sale...
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Leonard Joel smashes it with groundbreaking sale of contemporary Australian art
Even though room audiences in major art auctions have shrunk over the last few years, no auctioneer would have been quite prepared for zero attendees for a major sale of fine art. Recently introduced rules on property inspections and art viewings as well as auctions to restrict gatherings of people meant that Leonard Joel managing director and auctioneer John Albrecht faced just that: a space...
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First major Covid-19 induced online-only auctions achieve good results
While the coronavirus lockdown removed live auction bidding, many of the Australia and New Zealand auction houses have continued sales with online-only auctions, while others have closed their doors until the crisis passes. Prior to the lockdown, there were three possible auction formats: live only, both live and online and online-only, with the latter being the only option available in Australia and New Zealand at...
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Davidson Auctions Takes Online Bidding at Home to New Heights
Perhaps not since the time of World War II have Australians felt so strongly about the comforts of home, while many are trapped in overseas countries with little chance of returning quickly. Home then becomes a haven and shelter, a place to feel safe and secure. With share markets declining everywhere, perhaps we seek solace in the more tangible and perhaps comforting purchase of art...
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From Colonial to Contemporary at the Colville Gallery Summer Auction in Hobart
Wandering through the large colonial art collection at the Tasmanian Art Gallery and Museum, one is immediately assured of its gravitas and sense of history. Some of Australia’s most significant paintings reside here, including Benjamin Duterreau’s “The Conciliation” from 1840. Tasmania has long been a natural magnet for artists, from John Glover through Tom Roberts and on to Fiona Hall today. John Glover’s Tasmanian landscapes...
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Auction Records for Australian Women Artists at Davidson Auctions
Numerous hammer prices at multiples of the estimates, auction records for six female artists, and a number of sleepers made for a very exciting auction for both sellers and buyers at Davidson Auctions’ Fine Art sale on Sunday, 21 July 2019. Robert Davidson, principal of the highly respected and well regarded Sydney boutique auction house, was delighted with the level of interest and results achieved:...
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Monumental Painting by Emily Kame Kngwarreye in a First at Art Basel
In a first for Art Basel which concluded on 16 June 2019, paying for a stand at the world’s most prestigious art fair, has become somewhat easier (if you are accepted into the fair by the vetting committee in the first place – 290 this year from 34 different countries). Art Basel director Marc Spiegler announced in his press conference on the opening VIP day...
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Outstanding Auction Record for Ian Fairweather at Deutscher + Hackett
Rarely has the Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School seen so many art industry personalities, insiders and habitués as at the Deutscher + Hackett’s fine art auction on 10 April 2019. Many would have been there to observe how Charles Blackman’s Alice on the Table (lot 9) fared, after the artist’s Sleeping Alice offered just the previous night at Sotheby’s did not awaken....
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Extremely rare Colonial art comes full circle at Deutscher and Hackett
Nicolas Baudin’s extraordinary journey came full circle as 13 artworks created on his expedition to Australia between 1800 and 1804 made their epic return to this country more than 200 years later, to be auctioned at Deutscher and Hackett in conjunction with rare book dealers Hordern House in Melbourne on 28 November 2018. Before offering them for sale, almost exactly a year to the day...
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Hot or Not? at Sotheby’s on a Chilly Sydney Winter Night
On an evening in Sydney with an arctic chill in the air, Sotheby’s sale of Important Australian Art in Sydney on 28 August 2018 did break a number of Australian auction records. But one still has to wonder about the random nature of selling art in the auction room, which can particularly be observed in a tight sale containing just 67 lots. Perhaps before bidding...
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David Hulme on ABC TV NEWS
On the ABC news on 16 June 2018, David Hulme comments on the art of Del Kathryn Barton and a new record price achieved at auction for one of Australia’s most sought after artists. “Art valuer David Hulme said collectors were beginning to see the value in women’s art. He said Barton’s work “appeals to a lot of women art collectors”.” Read the transcript on...
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Art valuer and consultant David Hulme on ABC TV
David Hulme is a respected art valuer and art consultant, and he regularly appears in the media. His comments are sought from the print media and from TV, and he has been interviewed both in the press and the ABC numerous times. Art valuer and consultant David Hulme comments on the ABC News on the James Fairfax art collection auction at Deutscher & Hackett...
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Castlemaine art museum to stay open
writes Mark Kearny in the Bendigo Advertiser on 2 August 2017. An eleventh hour donation from an anonymous white knight has saved the Castlemaine Art Museum from immediate closure, with the $250,000 gift ensuring its doors stay open for at least two more years. About 400 members of the central Victorian gallery met at the Castlemaine town hall tonight to hear board chairwoman Jan Savage...
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Gallery closure labelled a “national tragedy” as art world calls on council to step in
writes Mark Kearny in the Bendigo Advertiser on 27 July 2017. Arts leaders from around Australia have voiced their outrage at the closure of Castlemaine Art Museum, labelling the decision a “national tragedy” and calling on the local council to step in. The board of the 104-year-old institution announced last week a shortfall in funding would shut the gallery’s doors for two years while a sustainable...
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Elton John-owned canvas beats estimate
writes Peter Fish in the “Australian Financial Review” on 15 June 2017. The enormous Emily Kngwarreye canvas bought by singer Elton John 20 years ago for $46,000 sold for $414,800, almost double its estimate at Bonhams sale on Tuesday last week. Measuring 1.34m by 3.70m, it is among a handful of super-size Kngwarreye paintings to come on the auction market since Earth’s Creation, 6.32m by 3.75m, sold for her...
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Elton John auctions his Emily Kame Kngwarreye painting My Country
writes Michaela Boland in The Australian on 12 June 2017. Elton John’s Emily Kame Kngwarreye landscape sold at auction for almost half a million dollars last week, ten times what the piano man bought it for two decades ago and double what Bonhams auction house expected as the bluechip art market continues its bull run. John and his husband David Furnish have been rationalising their...
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Australian art market gets fired up as auction records fall
writes Peter Fish in the “Australian Financial Review” on 10 May 2017. The mood in the art market is reviving after almost a decade of flatlining annual sales. Evidence of increased dealer activity on behalf of private clients is mounting amid improving sentiment and the evidence of several successful sales this year – culminating in last week’s Sotheby’s Australia sale, where numerous works realised way above...
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Local art market surges ahead at breakneck pace
writes Michaela Boland in “The Australian” on 4 May 2017. The Australian art market continued its stellar run last night when Sotheby’s Australia auctioned 108 artworks for $14.3 million, the company’s best result since the market peaked a year before the global financial crisis hit. Four artist records were set but the highlight of a night when only a couple of big artworks failed to find...
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Hammer comes down on busy year in art auction
writes Michaela Boland in The Australian on 9 December 2016. As the nation’s art auction houses draw the shutters on a busy year, sales figures reveal a dynamic buyers’ market in an industry that’s working harder for the money. With just a few small sales outstanding this year, total artwork transactions at auction were $102 million, about 8 per cent down on last year. Despite...
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Tom Roberts coin donated to Prime Minister’s office goes missing
By Marion Ives, ABC News, 11 April 2016 The disappearance of a valuable artefact that belonged to one of Australia’s most prominent artists, Tom Roberts, is now before the Australian Federal Police. Donated to the Prime Minister’s office for inclusion in a public collection, the coin was allegedly handed to a prime ministerial adviser at the official opening of the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA)...
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Picture this: a guide to art investment for the uninitiated
By Susan Muldowny, published in “In The Black”, 27 October 2015 Looking for an alternative form of investment? Fine art can bring great rewards, but you need to do your homework and seek advice. When Grace Cossington Smith’s modernist painting The Window sold for double its pre-sale estimate at a Sotheby’s Australia auction in November 2014, the local art world was aghast. Not only did...
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The Art of Valuing Beautiful Things
By Susan Muldowney | Vol: 38 Issue: 2 | Jul 2015 Published in The Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance The sale of Arthur Streeton painting The Windsor Damsel, Fishing earlier this year raised a few eyebrows in the art world. The rarity of Streeton works, the condition of the painting and the unquestionable esteem of the artist...
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Record Price for rare Window on weak night at Sotheby’s art auction
Record Price for rare Window on weak night at Sotheby’s art auction By Michaela Boland, The Australian, 26 November 2014 One of the earliest and largest of Grace Cossington Smith’s much-acclaimed late interiors — and possibly the only one still in private hands — ignited a bidding frenzy at Sotheby’s Australia’s Important Australian and International Art auction last night. The Window was listed with expectations...
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Did Edmund Capon find his true calling at Deutscher + Hackett?
The star of the show at Deutscher + Hackett’s auction of Australian and International fine art on 27 August 2014 was without a doubt the cover lot, Jeffrey Smart’s Self Portrait at Papini’s, 1984-85 (lot 11), selling for the artist’s record of $1.05 million hammer, but coming a very close second would have to be Edmund Capon who was hilarious as celebrity auctioneer, ably assisted...
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Bottoms up – Menzies first two day sale gets bums on seats
A large number of nude and semi-nude figures dominated the Menzies offering of Australian and international fine art and sculpture in the evening sale of 151 lots, set off by four remarkably similar Whiteley nudes prominently displaying their bottoms to the viewer. Nude offerings also came from Garry Shead, John Brack, Auguste Rodin, Norman Lindsay (of course), Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Guy Boyd, Pablo Picasso,...
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Radio interviews with David Hulme in July 2014
Listen to David Hulme’s comments on the art market from 24th July on Sydney’s Triple M with Joe Hildebrand and Matt Tilley https://audioboo.fm/boos/2348285-one-percenters-24th-july-2014#t=11m34s Listen to David’s comments on the art market from 1st July on Perth’s Mix 94.5 with Lisa and Tim https://audioboo.fm/boos/2297270-lisa-tim-daily-podcast-2nd-of-july ...
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Long holiday pays off for Deutscher +Hackett
The Deutscher + Hackett sale strategy of letting the Easter and Anzac Holiday fall between viewings in Sydney and Melbourne appears to have paid off handsomely: On Wednesday night, the auction room was packed with dealers, consultants and collectors refreshed and ready to spend in their second major sale of the year. The results confirmed the impression: the auction house sold 76% by volume and...
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Dorrit Black’s Prices Erupt
A spectacular eruption of her prices was witnessed at Bonhams The Grosvenor School and Avant-garde British Printmaking sale in London on 15th April. Dorrit Black in fact did witness the eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily in 1928 and created this linocut print of her experience (lot 107). Bonhams perhaps saved the best until last with Australian Grosvenor School expats Ethel Spowers and Dorrit Black...
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5AA’s Jeremy Cordeaux interviews David Hulme on buying art online
Radio 5AA, Adelaide, 21 April 2014: Jeremy Cordeaux interviews David Hulme on buying art online; in particular on his advice when considering purchasing art from Chartfords. Listen to the full interview here: David_Hulme_5AA ...
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