A relatively full room greeted Martin Farrah at last Thursday’s evening auction of Australian and International Fine Art & Sculpture.
Top lots for the evening and the ones which garnered most interest were: Lot 7, the Frederick McCubbin with a hammer price of $48K against an estimate of $25 to $35K; Lot 22, the Andy Warhol selling for a very reasonable $39K against an estimate of $16 to $20K; Lot 23, the Adam Cullen reaching the expected above high estimate of $40K; and the delicate and elegant Fred Williams’s gouache & oil on paper ‘vignette’ selling well at $39K, $4K above the high estimate.
The catalogue’s cover image, Del Kathryn Barton’s “Openly Song” of 2014, whilst clearly a stunning and rare available work by the artist could not reach above its high (and ambitious) estimate, selling at market value for $230K on the hammer.
The surprise lot was Philip Hunter’s “Day Plains IV” of 2002, enjoying some lively bidding toward the halfway mark of the auction, to reach $22K on the hammer, well above its high estimate of $9K.