Important Australian Art

Important Australian Art

With strong buyer interest, the November auction of Important Australian Art achieved $13,917,150 – a new record for a November art auction and the second-highest result for an art auction in the company’s history. Our 2019 art auction total has surpassed $39,000,000, the second-highest annual total ever recorded by Sotheby's Australia.  As a result, for the fourth consecutive year Sotheby’s Australia has continued its clear market leadership in art auction sales in Australia.

Outstanding results were realised for Australian artists spanning traditional, modern and contemporary art, including an auction record for Carol Jerrems, whose Vale Street 1975 (lot 1, estimate $30,000–50,000) sold for $122,000 – more than ten times the previous record for the artist. 

Important Australian Art presented a collection of works representing exceptional moments in Australian art history. The sale surveyed major stylistic developments, offering rare and prestigious examples of Naturalism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Modernism, and Abstraction, along with ground-breaking examples by the most influential artistic innovators of historical, modern and contemporary Australian art.