Smith & Singer

In The News

The Age /Sydney Morning Herald | Kerrie O'Brien

A rarely seen painting by one of Australia’s pioneering impressionist artists, Frederick McCubbin, will go under the hammer for the first time in 140 years.

The 1884 painting The Letter is one of McCubbin’s earliest contributions to the late 19th-century art movement known as Australian Impressionism and has been long held by his family, known to exist by only a handful of scholars.

The work features McCubbin’s sister Harriet, an artist who modelled for him as well as his contemporary Tom Roberts, reading a letter, apparently deep in thought.

Measuring 45.5cm x 22.6cm, the piece will be auctioned by Smith & Singer in November with an estimated price range of $300,000-$400,000. But the auction house says there’s a chance it will sell for well above that, given the rarity of McCubbin’s work of this era and the degree of interest it is expected to generate.

The 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.

Amour 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.

Financial 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.

7 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.

The 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.

The 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.

Herald Sun  |  Elizabeth Fortescue

A $300 Banksy artwork bought at the MCA Store in 2003 has emerged as the art bargain of a lifetime.  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.

Financial Review  |  Gabriella Coslovich

Three million-dollar paintings, six new auction records, and Australia’s first million-dollar diamond were all realised in Sydney on Tuesday night, emphasising the ongoing strength of the secondary art market. Deprived of their international getaways, Australia’s richest, many of whose fortunes have grown during the pandemic, are splashing out at home, and the auction industry is a clear beneficiary. The money needs to go somewhere, and why not on art and luxury goods – tangible art and luxury goods no less.

Financial Review  |  Gabriella Coslovich

Collectors will be spoilt for choice next week as more than $16 million in art goes under the hammer at Deutscher and Hackett, Smith & Singer, and Bonhams. No fewer than four million-dollar-plus paintings by blue-chip artists will be offered – three of them by Smith & Singer.

The Sydney Morning Herald  |  Stephen Crafti

Furniture from the post-war period saw a number of great proponents, with many European designers making their mark in Australia.

One of the most acclaimed is cabinet-maker and artist Schulim Krimper, described as the “Gio Ponti” – an Italian designer of great note – of Australia by Geoffrey Smith, chair of Smith and Singer (formerly Sotheby’s Australia).

The Sydney Morning Herald  |  Meaghan Wilson Anastasios

More than 100 years ago, upstairs in the Athenaeum on Collins St, a painting of a girl in the outback sat next to a masterpiece.

What the Little Girl Saw in the Bush - its subject standing by a fencepost, spying on two fairies frolicking in the lush Australian landscape - was exhibited at Frederick McCubbin’s first solo exhibition directly beside The Pioneer, the artist’s monumental work soon to be snatched up by the NGV and become one of the country’s most recognised, admired and loved images.

Exhibitions Now Open

20 February 2021

Toorak Times  |  Mick Pacholli

To celebrate 15 years of the Bowness Photography Prize MGA has partnered with Smith & Singer to showcase the 15 previous recipients during PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography. 

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