Thoroughbred News
Sotheby’s Australia has been entrusted with the sale of the 1964 Melbourne Cup won by New Zealand horse Polo Prince (NZ). Held in a private Queensland collection since 1999, the 1964 Melbourne Cup was presented by the Governor General, William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle, to Mrs Edna Davis, co-owner of Polo Prince. The Cup will be auctioned by Sotheby’s Australia on 24 October 2017 in Sydney with an estimate of $70,000-90,000.
The Advertiser | Patrick McDonald
Syndicated: Cairns Post, The Courier-Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Gold Coast Bulletin, The Herald Sun, The Mercury, News.com.au, NT News
A FRENCH art deco figurine owned by South Australia’s Angas family for more than 90 years, depicting a Spanish flamenco dancer who famously married an Indian Maharajah, will be auctioned next month.
Dancer of Kapurthala, by renowned Paris-based, Romanian-born sculptor Demetre Chiparus, was purchased new by Ronald Fife Angas in the 1920s and has been in the family collection ever since.
Australian Financial Review | Peter Fish
Numerous major paintings were on offer, including an epic Arthur Boyd, a trio of paintings by Russell Drysdale and a host of works by Brett Whiteley – but it was the unexpected high-flyers that electrified auction-goers at Sotheby's last week.
The Australian-owned firm, which last year emerged at the top of the major league of art auctioneers by turnover, has a reputation for attracting top works and pitching its estimates at close to what buyers are likely to pay. While many of the prices realised at its sale in Sydney on August 16 were broadly in line with expectations, the firm's chairman, Geoffrey Smith – whose meticulous research is a byword in the business – clearly got a few surprises.
Australian Auction Review
Arthur Boyd’s Moby Dick Hill sold for $1.2 million at Sotheby’s Australia’s Sydney August 16 sale and became the third highest priced work at auction for the artist.
Sotheby’s Australia chairman Geoffrey Smith said the result was a testament to the genius of an artist who, following World War II, encapsulated the urgency and vitality of an Expressionist style that contributed significantly to the history and development of 20th century Australian art.
Australian Auction Review | Richard Brewster
Charles Blackman’s The Pink 1953 – acquired directly from the artist’s solo exhibition of that year and held in a private collection ever since – will be auctioned for the first time in Sotheby’s Australia’s forthcoming Important Australian Art sale from 6.30pm Wednesday August 16 at Intercontinental Sydney, 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
With a catalogue estimate of $250,000-$350,000 from a total sale projection of at least $9 million, the painting was included recently in the comprehensive Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls exhibition at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne.
Business Insider | Simon Thomsen
Syndicated: Yahoo!7 Finance
A last-minute $250,000 donation from an anonymous Victorian couple has saved the 104-year-old Castlemaine Art Museum from closure next week.
The 1931 art deco building in Victoria’s goldfields region houses works by Australian artists such as Arthur Streeton, and is currently displaying Patricia Piccinini’s “Graham”, the sculpture commissioned by the Transport Accident Commission. Its announcement last month that it would close on August 11 until March 2019, due to “a range of financial and operational challenges”, sent shockwaves through the arts community.
Broadsheet | Annelise Answerth
An anonymous couple from central Victoria has donated $250,000 to keep the Castlemaine Art Museum open, after the regional institution announced it would close indefinitely next week due to lack of funding.
Sotheby’s Australia is pleased to announce that it has facilitated an anonymous donation to the Castlemaine Art Museum so it can remain open. In response to the recent announcement that Castlemaine Art Museum was scheduled for closure on 11 August, friends and clients of Sotheby’s Australia approached them with the request to facilitate a significant financial donation to ensure that the Museum remains open. The benefactors wish to remain anonymous. This donation is provided to support the Museum’s operating costs, together with the removal of the current admission fee, to ensure that the public has free access to this valuable and unique national asset.
Castlemaine Art Museum has long been integral to Australia’s cultural heritage. The collection contains many significant works of art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and has been the beneficiary of numerous gifts and bequests for almost a century. The institution provides much needed access to the visual arts in regional Victoria.
Sotheby’s Australia shares a rich and distinguished history of supporting and nurturing the visual and broader arts in Australia, including scholarly research, curating exhibitions, and assisting public institutions in acquisitions, exhibitions, loan requests, and the gift of works of art and financial support.
Sotheby’s Australia hopes that this generous donation to the Castlemaine Art Museum will encourage others to support the institution in financial and non-financial ways that will secure its long-term future. We look forward to Castlemaine Art Museum regaining its rightful position as a pre-eminent local, state and national cultural destination and will provide the board with our full support.
In the words of our clients:
We are delighted to be able to lend our support to keep the Castlemaine Art Museum operating during this difficult period of restructuring. We are a couple from Central Victoria with family links in the district and have been frequent visitors to both the town and the Museum.
We see this donation as an opportunity to secure the Museum’s long-term future and develop it as one of the premium provincial museums in Australia. Our initial donation of $250,000 over two years will be supplemented by further donations to support exhibitions during this time. Our commitment of financial support beyond 2019 will depend on the level of support and engagement from the community as a whole and Mount Alexander Shire Council in particular.
We believe this is a great opportunity to grow the Museum, raise its national profile and make it a ‘must visit’ destination. We urge the Shire Council, local business and the Castlemaine community to take this opportunity to make a commitment to the museum’s future by supporting the Board in its endeavours.
Castlemaine is blessed with a wonderful museum building and a fabulous collection. Let’s work together to make sure it remains a vibrant and important part of Castlemaine’s future.
‘Sotheby’s Australia hopes that this generous donation to the Castlemaine Art Museum will encourage others to support the institution in financial and non-financial ways that will secure its long-term future. We look forward to Castlemaine Art Museum regaining its rightful position as a pre-eminent local, state and national cultural destination and will provide the board with our full support.’
Geoffrey Smith, Chairman & Gary Singer, Chief Executive Officer, Sotheby’s Australia
ArtsHub | Gina Fairley
An injection of $300,000 in donations has kept CAM’s doors open for a little longer, but staffing remains uncertain for the Victorian gallery.
ABC Radio Australia |