Wieneke Archive Book 4h : Art Sales Presscuttings

BY-WAYS OF INVESTMENT (2) l'ortfot, ;1944. 5 lest coun- the U.S.A. n system ) he con- weights- Cie.- hroughout the Far pressure , of indus- n time to the U.K. system for or North stem. iad Trans - recently iccessfully 's Depart - if decimal e use of introduc- irency on r. tor some that the system is "centar or short used in rmni On i nment's he run- chemi- tires has May I cd under Phar- eme. Lind that 'tension least as has led of the 0 v 13.9- quan- in leaf ill fall cr cent It in strut ion protests rnmcnt Itaction price )mpar- es is a verage : Chyme d to a posed lb for nncdy U.S. tob- rgu- 's re - lower rls. I. the Iris: acco- about dctri- worth ,ear? 1965 Boardroom Buyers investing in modernity is riskier than inresting in antiquity because it means trying to anticipate tomorrow's tasie rather than betting on the proven values of yesterday. For that reason, it 0111.11$ the way to capital gains that have struck the Australian imagination (alms ays ready to admire a successful gamble) ever since the Shureek sale revealed the immense ap- prciation in the value of William Dobell's work. All that some people know of art is that ten or even six years ago one could buy a Dobell for £60 that today is hid £700 by (who intends to re -sell it h' her yet). or that a Dobell por- tr it of Shureck, once sold foi 50. has lately been sold at £4,0110. Those who visit galleries oc- casionally have heard that a Drysdale is now unprocurable et £4,000. that Sidney Nolan's work is increasing in value apace in a market that has become world- wide, and that the Australian - primitive canvasses of Broken Hill miner "Pro" Hart have doubled in value in the last 12 months and are expected to rise again soon. Are there no falls in this mar- ket?There arc, if you look bock far enough. Sid Long's work. a pop;11..: artist two generations ago, is now counted second-rate and his work is worth little - but his contemporaries, Streeton, Tom Roberts and Conder, have proven sound investments. In fact, no serious Australian painting produced over the last generation has lost in value. This is a large claim, and will strike businessmen as extrava- gant until they reflect on the wore of the Australian art market. Apart from the fact that the market in decoration registers the depreciation of the currency as sensitively as any. there is the circumstance that the Australian demand for paintings is rising faster than the general level of material well-being. Whether this is the effect of cultural advance in a nation that H. G. Wells before the war called "neanderthal" in spiritual affairs, or whether it is competi- tive status -seeking along lines dictated by the ladies' magazines, the economic fact is sure. Buying pressure is fairly evenly distributed all the way tip from the young professionals buyine unknown contemporaries at £50 a carvas to industrialists collect- ing Dobells at 4,800 guineas a time. As would be expected from the sp-uctore of Australian society. the ceding is io mud that latter point: a Ronault offered here for £16,000 found no taker and had to he sent back to France. That was not because our art lovers are chino inist still (they were till about 1963): Bernard Buffets have sold easily at £2,200. a Signac view of Venice for £1,900. and tapestries by Dom Robert at £3,450. A Sydney gallery whose annual turnover is £95,000 re- ports that it has four clients who spend £5,000 a year each on new paintings, A leading Melbourne gallery would do better, for the southern city has always shown more interest, more taste and more investment sense in art (and in antiques) than cruder Sydney, It is not only the purchases of private collectors that are boosting prices. There is timid inquiry from commerce and industry for works Printed and published hy John niir fax dr Sons Limited. of Janet Steel, ploadwaYi at Jones sweet, A Charles Blackman and admins, R eserve Bank, Sydney. to grace the or canteen of marble boxes. Out Ia,iness organisi a ions do not yet have. as the British Institute of Directors has had since 1963, an "arts advisory council" to guide companies that are buying or commissioning works of art from company funds. But there is growing hope among professionals ,hat, just as the old Commonwealth Bank had some "hidden reserves" in the shape of Strectons and Elioth Gruners, so the newly housed Reserve Bank will set a style by purchasing Fairweathers and Peascods. Then, underpinning local de- mand, is a new foreign inquiry for works other than those of Dobell and Nolan. Visiting tycoons, seen ever more frequently as foreign in- vestment quickens, are nowadays of a sort that prefers an Aus- tralian abstract to a mulgawood ashtry as a souvenir from Down Under. More important have been the Australian art shows in London, and Australian participation in exhibitions on the Continent and in the Americas, for these create an external interest of which the impact on prices could he con- siderable-for Australians still pay less for paintings than Americans and Fnropeans. Finally. there Is the Power bequest which, once it is organ- ised, will provide (assuming it spends its dividends from the M.L.C.) a custom of £34,000 a year for contemporary paintings. This all adds up to a fairly healthy market, where supply is actually quite limited-there is a shortage of blue-chip paintings by established Australian artists. So it is no surprise that around the art lovers and col- lectors there has formed a fringe of shrewd investors. who have noticed that a Len French is as rewarding a repository for savings (ur cash income) as B.H.P. shares. Naturally. even the most re- fined aesthete has an eye to the future cash value of the work of art he buys, but dealers say it is still rare for Australians to he frank about this. At the risk of seeming crass, no such prudery will influence the following guidelines on how to buy and 1 hat to buy of Aus- tralian art that has a solid chance of gaining in price, foyer, boardroom the new glass-and - First, where to buy. There are auctions of paint- ings in the reputable salesrooms, but one is apt to find only the 1111'0W -010K of A deitTer-iii may have to buy a whole collection to get certain good canvasses. and he will then puss on the dross to the auc- tioneer rather than disgrace his gallery by selling it himself. So they are to be avoided by the investor, for in all collector - item speculation only the best should be bought. Gunny investors often ap- proach a painter direct, hoping to save the cost of a dealer's commission. Sometimes this works, even if it shouldn't. Most painters are "tied" to a dealer, from whom they dniw advances to live on in between shows, but some will sell direct. The trouble is that their prices are liable to he more arbitrary than the dealer's, for, as one dealer confided. "young painters arc usually bumptious, arrogant and pushing." However, knowing where their living comes from, they will usually refer the buyer to the dealer, or at least take the deal- er's advice on a price (where- upon the dealer gets his com- mission). A direct approach to the dealer has its advantages. He will have a variety of artists in his "stable" and, how- ever acid he may be about other dealers, lie is almost always fair- minded about the artists in their stables. So he can give 'expert and fairly impartial judgments on the range of works available and, being simply a businessman Inn matter how flamboyant his tie and his gallery props), he is no harder to do business with (or not to do business with) than others of his sort. There is no need to be influ- enced by the dealer in the elementary matter of what sort of art one prefers-abstract or figuratke, stark primitive or de- coratke cubist. Dealers will not try to dictate in such tespects, though they en- joy "educating" the taste of a regular customer. Having decided upon what painter or group one would wish to invest in-for one has to live with this investment. and not leave it at the bank like share scrip-one is well advised to rely heavily on the dealer's business acumen. He con explain price differen- tials, suggest alternatives. ferret out a youpgcr painter in the iilloswe'lltlflr -who is on the way no. I give on a,se,sment of the !het and resale oppor hint ties of each work. As with other counters, paint- ings can have narrow markets (few like them, but those who do like them a lot and will pay well) or else he highly liquid and always readily disposable. Only a professional dealer knows such things, and the buy- er's prejudices and preferences arc no substitutes for that know- ledge. One lending Sydney dealer is willing to hack his judgments with this sort of guarantee: if you get tired of a canvas after a year, he will take it back at 10 per cent more than you pay for Some of the best galleries always (and others. sometimes, for it depends on the painter) print the prices of each work in a catalogue. The national distrust of middlemen here takes the form of a suspicion that where there is no murked price, the dealer makes a special price for each buyer. He would he very unwise to do so, for his customers compare notes and if Lady C. learned that she had paid 250 guineas for a canvas previously offered to Mrs P. for £20(t, he may have lost a good client. In fact. when prices are not published it is in order to keep them from the slier of the canvas, rather than from succes- sive prospective clients. Some dealers are willing to bargain, most are not: but all really high prices, in the four - figure range, are "subject to negotiation." in the accepted euphemism. Experienced collectors aver that the paintings minket is safer, more honest and more consistent than it looks to the newcomer confused by the con- junction of aesthetics and hard cash. Terms can usually he arranged for expensive purchases by solid customers, because the dealer gets his hanker to lend on the surety of the client's repute. Dealers are training their bankers to regard paintings as securities for advances and, though it is by no means general practice yet in Australia to hike a Dobell as collateral. certain Cont. on Page 3 ti