Rover fails to weave magic

By Peter Fish

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, June 10, 2006

(http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/rover-fails-to-weave-magic/2006/06/09/1149815313852.html )

ARTSMART

IS IT all over, red Rover? Are prices for art by Rover Thomas - who, along with Emily Kngwarreye, is among the top names in Aboriginal art - on the slippery slope?

On the face of it, the answer is yes. But of course it's more complex than that.

At Lawson-Menzies in Sydney last week, the large and imposing Rover Thomas Love Magic at Papunya sold on the hammer for $170,000 - well short of the pre-sale estimate of $200,000 to $250,000. Buyer's premium at 20 per cent bumps up the final price to a more respectable $204,000.

But estimates are based on the hammer price, not the premium-inclusive figure. Certainly the vendor would have been hoping for more.

No less than eight other "Rovers" were sold at the same sale, yet only one, Lake Dora, sold for $20,400, fetched better than their lower estimate on the hammer. Sounds like quite a few disappointed vendors.

Thomas, of course, still holds the record price for an Aboriginal work of art at auction with the total $778,750 paid by the National Gallery of Australia for his monumental All that Big Rain Coming from the Top Side at Sotheby's in 2001. Since then, arguably, it's been downhill all the way.

Despite frenzied efforts to push the artist's prices through the magic $1 million mark, Thomas's much-hyped Uluru failed to sell at Sotheby's in 2004, while Christie's also drew a blank the following year with another supposed million-dollar work, Lundari (Barramundi Dreaming).

But if Lawson-Menzies's head of Aboriginal art, Adrian Newstead, is disappointed with his Rovers, it doesn't show. He says the Aboriginal art market continues to expand - indeed LM has grown its tally steadily over the last five sales, progressing from around $1.5 million for its first specialist sale to $3.5 million this time around.

With another sale due in November he says LM is on track to chalk up $7 million sales from Aboriginal art this year. That compares with $5.6 million last year, just behind market leader Sotheby's with $6.1 million.

Last week's two LM sales - encompassing almost 1000 lots including an Oceanic and Asian tribal section - were more than 70 per cent sold.

Several new artist records were set, including $180,000 for Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula's Spear Straightening, more than double the artist's previous high of $82,740, and Wimmitji Tjapangati's Dingo and Rainbow Snake Dreaming at $78,000 compared with the previous high of $37,000.

All right, so the Aboriginal art scene is still humming along. But what's with Rover? For a start, the record price for All that Big Rain was an anomaly. The National Gallery wanted a major work, a "statement" for its wall.

Through a benefactor it paid a price $300,000 more than Rover's previous record and half as much again as the record for Aboriginal work set the previous year, $486,500 for Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula's Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa. Since then, seemingly, no other Rover has cracked the $500,000 mark.

Aboriginal art is a phenomenon, and a recent one. The desert art movement only began at Papunya less than 40 years ago; Rover Thomas only painted for the market from the early 1980s and Emily from the 1990s. Emily, who died in 1996, was highly prolific, producing more than 5000 paintings of very varied quality, as is the case with many other artists. Rover died in 1998. The high status and hype surrounding such figures means ordinary people and investors, as well as galleries, sometimes overpay for mediocre works.

Then, a few years down the track, they expect to turn a profit - particularly where a personal superannuation scheme is involved.

Auctioneers carefully vet what they are offered, and probably accept less than 15 per cent for sale. In the end, Newstead says, auctioneering is mostly about hosing down vendor expectations. Even then, estimates often outrun reality.

In the end it's fair to say the Aboriginal art scene is still vibrant and vigorously expanding, with new and not-so-new names regularly catching the eye of eager buyers.

But he says there are signs of overheating - and overpricing - in the primary market, where new work is first offered to buyers directly or through galleries. The secondary market - auctions - continues to increase every year, he says.

Newstead should know. He also wears a hat as a gallery owner, operating Coo-ee in Bondi, and is national president of the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association, an organisation devoted to the ethical trade in indigenous arts.

"Starting in 1994 [when Sotheby's first launched sales of Aboriginal art] it's grown unabated, without any turndowns."

But that $1 million Rover may still be some way away.