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House contents auctions - but whose contents are they? |
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 21 November 2009 |
What type of paintings would you expect to find in a house contents auction, say in a Sydney North Shore home, owned by an elderly person who had a lifetime to develop a fine eye for great art, and had an above average, but not excessively high income?
I would expect some good art that was popular from the period when that person was at the peak of their income. Maybe some Adrian Feint or Ernest Buckmaster flower pieces, a Gladstone Eyre watercolour of an early Sydney scene, a Roland Wakelin still life, possibly a Norman Lindsay oil, a couple of early Pro Harts, a harbour scene by Erik Langker and a few botanical prints and landscapes by unknown artists. Or if the auction house is very lucky, maybe even a masterpiece from the Heidelberg school or colonial school that has been handed down through the generations.
In reality, what I find at these auctions are lithographs and etchings by Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley and Charles Blackman, and oils by David Bromley and Melinda Harper. Is this really what a person of that age would have collected through their life? I suspect not. It's certainly not the type of art my grandparents or even parents were interested in.
It sounds to me more like the stock list of a gallery that caters to today's popular tastes, who is using to opportunity to liquidate some stock. In fact, if you ask the auction house, and if they are reputable, they will discreetly confirm that this is the case. Other less respectable auction houses will try to continue the deception.
Even if the auction house is willing to reveal the truth, this doesn't help the unsuspecting buyers who don't think to ask. Similar to the controversy last year where auction houses were under pressure to reveal which paintings being auctioned were owned by the auction house, and with provenance being so important, surely the auction house has an obligation to reveal in their catalogues which paintings belonged to the home owner, and which are outside entries? |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 23 November 2009 )
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