There is a maxim in the art market that in troubled times there is a flight to quality.  The August round of auctions which included sales at Sothebys, Bonhams and Goodman and Deutscher and Hackett certainly had a good smattering of quality offerings.  However, with the limited availability of stock to sell due to nervous or reluctant vendors, the auction houses needed to be bullish in their estimates in order to persuade owners to part with their artworks.  Consequently the issue in this round of sales was The Price.

The speculators appear to be completely out of the market at the moment leaving the auction rooms to the serious collectors, the institutions and the trade.  However, if some of the quality paintings were to sell in the quoted ranges of the catalogues then an auction record would need to be achieved.  Fortunately for all parties concerned, these prices were achieved and records were broken.

Sotheby's had a healthy crowd on Monday night (24th August) possibly spurred on by previous weekend press stories about the demands of the Tasmanian Greens amongst others to have Lot 5, the Benjamin Law busts, withdrawn from the auction.  The opening lot, number 1, was Jeffrey Smart's The Painted Factory, Tuscany (estimate $600-800,000) which sold to Smart's Brisbane dealer Phillip Bacon for a hammer price of $750,000 ($870,000 including premium), the second highest auction result ever achieved for the artist. According to Mr Bacon, he has purchased the work for his own private collection.  Although many of the lots were barely fought over, they still hammered for good prices with auction records being achieved for Sydney Ball, Kevin Lincoln and Oliffe Richmond.  Trade participation included a tussle between Denis Savill (Savill Galleries, Sydney) and Matt Stafford (Axia Fine Art, Melbourne) for the Garry Shead, and Larry Foley (consultant, Perth) as underbidder for Lot 8, Ethel Carrick Fox's Promenade at Manly. The sale total of 173 lots saw a healthy clearance rate of 69.5% at a workmanlike auction.

Tuesday night (25th August) saw a head-to-head between Bonhams and Goodman's major seasonal Fine Art auction and Sotheby's liquidation of the very contemporary collection of troubled Austcorp.  Amazingly, all things considered, both sales had very respectable results.

At Sothebys, it appeared that the collection was primarily unreserved which meant that clearance was a highly desirable 94% by lot and 96% by value.  The collection comprised an array of artworks including darlings of the auction rooms and darlings of the institutions, some material on the market far earlier than would have been anticipated or desired by the owner, curator or artist's representative gallery.  The room was full of committed collectors and buyers who appeared to have been waiting for this moment for a long time- quality material that may no longer be accessible in the primary market but without contest from the deep pockets of the speculators.  Interestingly, opportunities were to be had on many fronts including rare non-commercial material such as the Ah Xian cloisonne bust Human, Human (Bust 5) which attracted hugely competitive bidding to sell for $150,000 hammer against an estimate of $80-100,000 through to John Kelly's Camouflaged Cow, a previous darling of the rooms and now a great buy at $22,000 hammer against an estimate of $35-45,000.  It appeared that everything had a home to go to at "A Price".

Just up the road, the phones were running hot at Bonhams and Goodman.  A savvy move had been to preview this auction offering alongside the Estate collection of the Late James Gleeson AO which was scheduled to be sold two days later in Sydney.  There were a lot of familiar "faces" in the B&G catalogue particularly because one high profile Melbourne dealer, John Playfoot, had decided to offload a quantity of stock much of which had been on the market at least once in the previous year or two.  Yet again, The Price played its part.  Sale results of 102% sold by value and 86% by volume were achieved by the agreement of vendors to "meet the market".  Finally, Brett Whiteley's Justine found a home for a hammer price of $800,000 after failing to sell two years ago with an estimate of $1.4-1.8m.  The buyer was Sydney dealer Michael Nagy.  Another Sydney dealer, Denis Savill, made many astute purchases including artworks previously purchased by competitor John Playfoot for considerably more.  Savill declared in the press that some of the two dozen works that he had purchased were to go into his superannuation fund.  Playfoot too was spending money as he earned it, by purchasing the superb work by Albert Tucker Footballers for a $300,000 hammer price (estimate $300-500,000).  The extensive participation of the trade at these auctions suggests two possible motives: firstly, that these dealers need to support the prices of certain artists and artworks to reinforce the value of the stock that they have in their stockrooms; secondly, that perhaps now there really are bargains to be had for the brave and knowledgeable and that one's future profit is determined by The Price at which you purchase not by The Price at which you sell.

Trade participation was evident once again at Deutscher and Hackett on Wednesday night (26th August) when the cover painting, Colin McCahon's superb Let Be, Let Be sold to prominent New Zealand dealer John Gow for $785,000 hammer (estimate $800,000 - $1,200,000) an auction record for the artist as well as the highest price paid at auction for any work of New Zealand art.  Paintings that offered great buying included John Olsen's major work Duck A L'Orange which sold for $320,000 hammer (estimate $350-450,000) and Ian Fairweather's Circus which sold for $60,000 hammer (estimate $65-85,000).  Works by artists such as Philip Wolfhagen, Bronwyn Oliver, David Larwill and Shaun Gladwell sold at the top end of their estimate range and above.  Interestingly, Deutscher and Hackett's sale showed a breadth of interest and willingness to purchase right across the market from colonial to contemporary.  The underlying connection was always the same - quality at the right price.  And that price could be below, within or above estimate depending on what the buyers deemed it was worth.

The week ended on a high in another city.  On Thursday night (27th August), the auction of the Estate of the Late James Gleeson AO was staged in Sydney, the place where Gleeson's work is particularly sought after and admired.  An almost 100% sale rate reflected the highly desirable circumstances for both auction house and buyers where "all but a few select works would be sold unreserved".  However, the rarity of this material from the whole range of the artist's oeuvre and the importance of the provenance ensured that prices were strong.  Indeed, in the long term, many of these purchases prices should stand the test of time because of the quality of the artwork.

As Mr Bacon said of his Smart purchase in the Australian Financial Review "it's one of the great pictures and was very inexpensive"!