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The coronavirus pandemic is making life tough for businesses in Australia and twice as hard during Victoria’s Stage 4 lockdown.
The antiques, decorative arts and collectables industry is no exception as Leski Auctions found for online its Stamps, Coins & Postal History two-day auction on August 22 and 23.
Only 59 per cent of the listed 986 lots (or 582) sold – and even the top selling item, a 5d Australia King George V head block of four stamps (lot 128),...
Items belonging to Aboriginal Australian Rules Football legend the late Graham “Polly” Farmer filled eight of the top 10 spots at Abacus Auctions Melbourne sporting and memorabilia sale on Saturday July 25.
While the top priced item was former Australian Test cricket captain Steve Waugh’s baggy green (lot 141), which changed hands for $14,376 including buyer’s premium, Polly Farmer’s personable collectables came in at second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth and...
Melbourne-based auction house Gibson’s Auctions cannot believe the result of its latest auction on Sunday July 19 – which involved the personal collection of Australian auction industry doyen Graham Joel.
Because of the current lockdown in Melbourne due to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers could only bid in one of three ways – absentee, over the phone or online – with no member of the public allowed to enter the auction rooms.
However, that...
Coronavirus lockdowns in Melbourne have been no deterrent for the establishment of new artist records at online auctions – at least that is what Deutscher and Hackett found on July 15 when Fred Williams’ Hummock in a Landscape 1967 (lot 7) sold for $2,822,726 including buyer’s premium.
The auction house was all geared up for limited buyer numbers in its rooms when, with rising community virus numbers, the second lockdown was introduced a week before the...
Australia’s art auction world might have slowed because of the global coronavirus pandemic – but it is certainly not bowed.
Menzies held its first live auction since February 2020 on Thursday July 9 in Sydney with 38 committed buyers occupying reserved seating in its Kensington rooms and the remainder lining up to bid on the phone or via the internet.
“There was more online and phone bidding than usual and results were encouraging,” Menzies assistant art...
Given the uncertainty surrounding business operations in Australia as the deadly coronavirus pandemic continues to be a thorny global problem that shows little sign of abating in the near future, Melbourne-based Gibson’s Auctions must have been pleased with the results of its 20th century design auction on June 29.
A significant proportion of Melbourne’s population has been forced into local lockdown as COVID-19 numbers and hotspots continue to grow in what...
An unusual circa 1980 limited series “Trumeau Architettura Cabinet” (lot 637) by Italian artist Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) went under the hammer for $27,000 at Leski Auctions Decorative Arts & Collectables sale on June 28 in Melbourne.
A versatile and eclectic artist with plenty of creative flair, Fornasetti was one of the 20th century’s most prolific figures and vitally important to the Italian industrial design culture, for which he gained a broad...
An early 19th Anglo-Indian centre table, two paintings by Australian artist Hugh Sawrey and the ship’s masthead figure of Spain’s Queen Isabella II’s husband Don Francisco de Assis Maria Fernando de Bourbon filled the top four spots at Leski Auctions Australian & Historical sale from June 13-14 in Melbourne.
The table (lot 430) sold for $16,000, just clear of its top catalogue estimate of $15,000, while the Sawrey paintings (lots 853 and 854) –...
An 1863 painting of a racehorse named General (lot 39) owned by Thomas Chirnside, a major Victorian landholder known for the historic Italianate mansion he built in the 1870s at Werribee, almost doubled its high $30,000 catalogue estimate when it changed hands for $56,120 (including buyer’s premium) at Gibson’s Art and Photography auction in Melbourne on Monday June 15.
The painting was featured on the catalogue front cover and was part of a pleasing result...
An 87 per cent by value result for Gibson’s Autumn Auction Series sale in Melbourne on Monday May 25 was a fantastic achievement even if the auction had been conducted under normal conditions.
It was twice as valuable given the heavy trading restrictions imposed by Australia’s current coronavirus pandemic and the auction house was more than a little pleased with its online success.
An impressive William IV mahogany breakfront library bookcase (lot 218) was the...
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