Despite the Fin. Review’s criticism of a lack of an “Indigenous Specialist” (“Saleroom”, Feb 17, 2021) resident at Leonard Joel, the inaugural auction of “Indigenous Art” clearly resonated well enough for some solid buying. 

With the beautifully polished Olivia Fuller at the rostrum, the 112-lot auction elicited brisk and spirited bidding from the bank of telephone and online punters.

Highlights of the auction included a strong result for the Patrick Tjungurrayi at Lot 22 with a hammer price of $14K against an estimate of $9K -$12K; a good result for the George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi work from the Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art (London) at Lot 23 with a hammer price of $7000 against an estimate of $3K to $5K; and some very lively action ensued for Lot 75, the Prince of Wales 2002 work, previously at Deutscher & Hackett in 2017 and selling on the hammer for $2800, this time, the final bid was $9500. 

The two large Emily Kame Kngwarreye paintings at Lots 32 and 33, formerly acquired from Jinta Desert Art failed to meet the no doubt high expectations, selling at the lower reserve for each work, while the work on paper at Lot 31, formerly acquired from Niagara Galleries, sold well enough at $6000 on the hammer.

The equally dramatic Tommy Watson large canvas at Lot 54 also failed to elicit strong enough interest to meet its low estimate of $20,000, selling post-auction at $16,000.

Notwithstanding these slight setbacks, the majority of works met their estimates, and sales overall were healthy and suggested good interest remains for this category.