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Stretched out on the canvas |
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Written by Sydney Morning Herald
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Saturday, 29 November 2008 |
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"COME on sir, it's only money," auctioneer Tim Goodman joked as bidding on a small oil painting by the unfamed W. D. Knox stalled at the Bonhams and Goodman auction on Tuesday night. The following night, Deutscher and Hackett auctioneer Anita Archer was also playing for laughs, doing her best to dispel thoughts of the grim economic climate.
"Happy days are coming, yes, that's what we need," Archer quipped as she read from a poem on an Ida Outhwaite drawing going under the hammer. "Sceptics!" Archer said a moment later when the work failed to sell. Last year, the thrills and gasps in the auction room came from the astronomical prices being fetched for prize Brett Whiteleys and John Bracks. This week, it was the auctioneer's self-effacing humour that was buoying the crowds. Read more... |
