Wieneke Archive Book 4h : Art Sales Presscuttings

THE NATIONAL TIMES, JULY 20 to 26, 1980 37 THE ARTS Edited by KAY KEAVNEY DESERT LANDSCAPE, by Russell Drysdale. Drysdale is the most sought -alter Australian painter today. Most of his important works, however, are in private collections. If one came on to the market it could fetch $60,000. SUSANNA SHORT: JUST six years ago, Dobell's Wangi Boy sold for an unprecedented $70,000. It was -"entry re -sold by its owner, thp Sin.. motor -dealer, Ron Hodgson. The sale was private, the amount undisclosed; but it's believed to have involved quite a loss. The Great Australian Art Boom of the early 1970s, with its telephone -number prices at auc- tion for Dobells, Drysdales, Nolan% is now a part of history. Less well-known is the wide shakeout which followed the boom's collapse. For every buyer who struck gold, there were hundreds who collected dross. Indeed, every dealer has a story to tell with the same moral: let the buyer beware! There was the well-heeled Vaucluse couple who, on a trip to France, paid $3,000 too much for a "limited edition" print by Chagall. (The edi- tion was limited - but to nearly 300.) And there was the client who had trouble selling his Dobell for $250. only six years after buying it for $2,750 at the height of the boom. In Australia, big money has been paid out fri.mv ror both good pictures and bad. And traps *MIN iwary arc especially plentiful if you buy (or an investment. The prime hazard, in the view of private gal- lery dealers, is the art auction. Not unnaturally. the dealers recommend you use their ser- vices instead. Today, though, these services arc considerable ... Commercial galleries offer both expert advice and practical help. It's possible to pay off a work of art, or even borrow it without cost: "on ap- proval." If it doesn't feel right in your chosen set- ting, if you decide you can't live with it, you can return it or exchange it. Above all, the galleries offer pre-selection. As Stuart Purves, of Melbourne's old -estab- lished Australian Galleries, puts it: "If you go to the best private dealers, you can automatically see the top 20 per cent of what's offering." When in 1977, the Federal Government in- troduced its taxation incentives scheme for the arts, a approved 150 valuers around Australia to assess the precise worth of works of art. Most of those chosen were dealers from private galleries, with recognised expertise over a broad spectrum - from 20th century Australian painting w thw- art books or Chinese ceramics. A Valuer in Australian painting, for instance. is Sydney's Rudy Komon, who insists, however, that he was acting as an assessor long before 1977. "Insurance companies," he explains, "demand that all owners have their works properly valued. and naturally the recommend qualified people." Like most dealers, though. Komon warns against viewing art us merely a market com- modity. "I always say that the investment is the secondary thing," he says. "You should buy a picture because you like it." He might have added: "or because your dealer does." Fifteen or so years ago, he had to sell Dobells for as little as 10 guineas "because no-one want- ed them." One version of Wangi Boy passed through his hands for 250 guineas: now the wheel is beginning to turn again. Sydney dealer Rex Irwin claims he is seldom asked for art as an investment. When he is. he will accept the challenge, he says. "only on two conditions: one, there would be no guarantee you'd like what I choose for you - investment - Not any more, suggests Sydney's SUSANNA SHORT. Sometimes, says Brisbane's BILL ORD in this look at the art market. buyers want something that is pretty as well; two, you would sell when I told you to." The art would be bought and treated like a share. Irwin believes art can be a good in- vestment - with the right advice. Take the case of British anist David Hockney, who is widely acclaimed for his printings. His editions of etchings, lithographs and aquatints arc sent around the world. The time to buy Hoekney is immediately - when he prints. Last luly. Train, who handles his prints here, sold a freshly printed lithograph by Hockney for $1750; six months later, its value had risen by almost a third. There are a number of dealers who specialise in historical prints. Like craft, photography, even sculpture, this area is modestly priced by com- parison with painting. When Sisdncs's Ward Gal- lery recently showed linocuts b.) a little-known Australian woman printmaker of the 1930%. Eth ken Palmer, the exhibition sold out. Prices ranged from $200-$600. Two years ago, Palmer prints were fetching only S50 each. Australians. however, tend to buy paintings. They shy away from sculpture. and they cer- n- inly don't invest in "craft." In the view of Ace l'ourke, director of the Crafts Council of Austra- l't Gallery. which handles artist -craftsmen A ustraliaavide, this is a mistake. "Australians generally." he says, "aren't sophisticated enough to look to craft for in- vestment, so it's possible to buy the top names at ackbottom prices. People sec themselves as buying pots or jewellery. but what they're really buying is sculpture and art." Some dealers completely dismiss art -buying for the purposes of investment. Frank Walters of Waiters Gallery has a stock reply when asked, "Is it a good investment?" lie answers, un- smilingly. "No," Clive Evatt of the lioganh Galleries is equally decisive. "People who buy art for investment," he says, "are only going to gel caught. Incidentally, it amuses me when artists want 15 per cent of the proceeds when we resell their paintings. I'm agreeable to that, because I also send them a bill for 15 per cent of any loss. "For every artist who sells at a profit after, say, 10 years, there'll be a thousand who sell at a loss. After 20 years, the ratio may be one to 10.000. "I can take you to the Art Gallery of NSW and show you room after room full of paintings from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s by artists no - one's even heard of today. "What I'm saying is that art is a notoriously bad investment. It just isn't an investment. 'The fact is that one or two artists out of thousands do catch on and become, over the long term. masters. But the chances of having some of those is like winning Lotto." To be a successful collector you need, not so much a great deal of money (though it helps) but luck, and the instinct for buying early and well. Australia's handful of private collectors of substance though, are genuine amlovers, not speculators seeking investments: some even end up giving their collections away. From gallery dealers like Chandler Coventry to businessmen like William Bowman and John Lane or prize- winning novelist Patrick White. serious 'collectors are passionate about the art they collect. They back their zeal with knowledge, and are not afraid to seek advice. Most have an eye that is exceptionally good. Coventry started buying paintings at IS. Among his earliest purchases were Fairweuthers and a Ralson, valued now at $18,000, and the i+i saluable work in his collection - until he gore it away. Last June, he announced that he would donate the bulk of his contemporary art collection to the New England Regional Art Museum in Anni- dale, NSW. 'To Coventry, the greatest joy in collecting is the challenge involved. BUSH FUNERAL, by S r Gill. Colonial artists like S. T Gill have risen spectacularly in value in the past seven years. In 1973. Gills sold for up to $1,200; now they can cost $12,000. He says: "The best part about buying pictures is buying them when they are made, which means that you have to progress with the times. The art , if the 1960s isn't the same as the art of the 70s." Always, he has collected advanced art. not familiar enough to be expensive; and apart from a good eye, he admits to an element of luck. Thirty years ago, for instance, in a print shop in Copenhagen, he picked up a print called Miss Christianson for t25. Today, as almost certainly a late Edvard Munch, that same print is worth at the very least $40,000. Collectors can be unlucky, too. When Cov- entry sent Miss Christianson to an Armidale frenchpolisher to be framed, the good man sliced it down to fit in the frame; in the act, bisecting the priceless signature. For an art -lover, that was a blow. For an art - investor, it would have been a total calamity. BILL ORD: "I DON'T know too much about art," said Brisbane insurance broker Keith English, "but I know what it's worth, and that's what an appraiser like Jim Wien - eke former Direciorof the -ceris rt . is. According to English, more and moi of the affluent society's mud money is being invested in art, ranging from Trobriand Handers' warshields to paintings by Tom Roberts. "They're investing in art as their fathers did in BHP shares: not for dividends but for capital gains. And that's why the business of insuring art has surged to a point most of us would once have laughed at. "My guess is that up to 30 per cent more works of art are insured now than there were five years ago. That's just in numbers. As for values - well, that's anybody's guess, but the cash worth of almost any item in the hands of any reasonably knowledgeable collector has risen at a rate comfortably above the level of inflation," Curiously, it costs little or no more to insure art these days than it did in the lifetime of many of the dead artists. The figure (in Queensland) has stayed steady at between $7 and $8 a year for every thousand of appraised worth. "It's a straight risk situation," said a broker who represents Lloyd's of London. "And homes which are graced with works of art don't go up in flames or get burgled more often than those whose sole nod to culture is a set of pottery ducks flying up the wall. "For particularly valuable works, we'd prob- ably insisi on certain security precautions, like deadlocks and burglar alarms, before we'll carry the risk," The brokers refused pointblank to identify their major an -insurance customers. but in Bris- bane it's not too hard to identify at least one Dr Norman Behan, an ebullient medical consultant in his bOs. who has collected Australian art on an heroic scale for the past 30 years. He has put together, not one but two collec- tions, with a combined present-day value of many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like most, if not all. Australia's great collector+, he collects for enjoyment - the enjoyment of others. One collection is permanently displayed in Continued on page 38