Aboriginal canvas artwork set to break records
Published on: 17-Jul-2007
The growing interest in indigenous arts in Australia and across the world could see a canvas artwork by a leading painter become the first Aboriginal piece to sell for more than £1 million.The two metre by three metre canvas artwork was painted by Clifford Possum, one of the best-known Aboriginal artists, whose successful career even saw him awarded the Order of Australia and be received by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Entitled Warlugulong, the canvas artwork will go under the hammer at Sotheby's in Melbourne on July 24th. The piece has an upper sale estimate of AUS $2.5 million (£1.1 million) - far in advance of the measly $2,100 that Possum himself picked up when he originally sold the piece more than 20 years ago!
"It's very ethical, sophisticated and international," Sotheby's Aboriginal art specialist, Tim Klingender told the Telegraph.
"This is our first sale since the market took a kick, so it will be a real test. The high end of the market is still strong. In May, a record was set for an Aboriginal artist - a painting by Emily Kngwarreye sold for AUS $1 million in Sydney.
"The opening of the Quai Branly Museum of indigenous art in Paris has also had a positive effect."
Warlugulong was later sold into the Commonwealth Bank art collection - and then spent 20 years hanging on a cafeteria wall before coming up for auction.
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