News & Video
In three weeks, the most significant work ever created by Rosemary Madigan will be offered for auction at Smith & Singer. The monumental, carved stone sculpture stands almost two metres tall, and is poised to break the auction record for Rosemary Madigan, and also potentially for any female Australian sculptor.
Margaret Olley painting sells for almost $100,000 in hot Covid market
27 August 2021The Australian | Stephen Lunn
It didn’t take long for Margaret Olley’s Still Life With Fruit and Flowers to find a buyer.
Art dealers Smith & Singer sent a note to those well-heeled members of its mailing list just after 10am on Thursday offering the painting for private sale. By 11.30am it had found a new home.
The buyer negotiated an undisclosed price understood to be just shy of $100,000, not a record for an Olley, but serious money.
Masterpiece by Ralph Balson to be Offered at Smith & Singer this August
11 June 2021
The Enchanting Flowers of Criss Canning
10 June 2021Amour Fou & Art Magazine | Anon.
Criss Canning is one of Australia's leading artists and is world-renowned for her still life art. After a long career she hangs in the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Artbank and in many private collections around the world. She has had over 21 solo exhibitions and in 2007 was the subject of a major retrospective organised by the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
She lives and works in a country house surrounded by a gorgeous garden which she maintains with her husband David Glenn. She is also a worldwide star on social media with a large number of followers who can admire her artwork and also videos of her garden.
Man on a Mission: John P O'Sullivan Traces the Colourful Career of Artist John Kelly
31 May 2021Irish Arts Review | John P O'Sullivan
Banksy Does the Business
19 May 2021Financial Review | Gabriella Coslovich
In Australia and around the world the irreverent British graffiti artist is becoming more sought after and the prices at auction have become as much a talking point as the works themselves.
In his 2005 monograph Wall and Piece the elusive British street artist Banksy wrote ‘Despite what they say graffiti is not the lowest form of art’. And if the measure of merit is in the price people are prepared to pay for an artist’s work (an enduringly debatable point), then Banksy has proved himself right many times over.
Australian Who Found Authentic Banksy Print for $300 Sells it for Staggering $184,000
14 May 20217 NEWS | Alex Turner-Cohen
One Australian has walked away almost $200,000 richer after a lucky find at an art store in Sydney. In 2003, a customer walked into the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) store in Sydney’s Circular Quay and picked up a Bansky print for less than $300. The painting was a copy of infamous street artist Banksy’s iconic Love Is In The Air with a red background, which depicts a protester throwing flowers. After the purchase, Smith and Singer, Australia’s auction house for paintings, discovered that the artwork was indeed authentic as it was number 450 of an edition of 500 printed by Banksy in 2003.
On Thursday night, 17 years after it was first purchased, the print sold for $184,091 on the international market.
Banksy Print Bought for $300 Sets Record Australian Price at Auction
14 May 2021The Age | Kerrie O'Brien
An Australian record has been set for the sale of a Banksy print with the anonymous artist’s Love Is In the Air (2003) selling at auction for nearly $200,000. Purchased by an unidentified bidder in America, it was offered in a single-lot, 10-day, online auction by Smith & Singer on Wednesday night and attracted bidders from around the world. It sold for $184,091, doubling the previous Australian record of $73,000.
Inaugural Smith & Singer Online Auction Sets Australian Auction Record for Banksy
14 May 2021
A $300 Banksy Artwork Bought at the MCA Store in 2003 has Emerged as the Art Bargain of a Lifetime.
4 May 2021The Daily Telegraph | Elizabeth Fortescue
A Banksy screen print picked up at the MCA Store at Circular Quay for less than $300 in 2003 is estimated to fetch its lucky owner between $100,000 and $150,000 at auction this month, eclipsing Banksy’s Australian auction record.
Banksy’s Love Is In The Air is number 450 of an edition of 500 printed in 2003, according to Smith and Singer auctioneers’ chairman Geoffrey Smith.