Must-See Auction Houses For Travelers
The clink of wine glasses… a splash of color beneath soft accentuating light… tasteful suits and gowns… million dollar transactions and the meeting of sophistication and wealth. Auction houses facilitate wondrous evenings for art collectors and art sellers to come together and share their passion for fine art auctions. One can certainly find a multitude of locations in the US, but some of the most successful have risen up in Canada, England and Australia.
Started circa 1995 in Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada - far from the wealthy art enthusiast base in Toronto — Heffel House was taking an obvious gamble. The Canadian market is not reported to be particularly busy, but Heffel House aimed to find the best and rarest Canadian art (like Emily Carr’s Eagle Totem priced at $250,000 and a Haida totem pole carved by a Bill Reid). They also took a smart business detour, by putting their entire collection up online in full color for all to see. Quickly, their business skyrocketed with Vancouver locals, Pennsylvanians and even Torontonians coming in to snag the "undervalued" original art for sale. Owner Robert Heffel told the National Post, "Our goal was, in the first five years, to have a $1-million auction, and in our first auction, we sold over $1-million just like that…. I don’t think people realize the power of the internet for this industry." Heffel.com is the only Canadian auction house that puts their entire catalogue of Canadian and international art on their website. They hold monthly fine art auctions online and find that clients are eager to purchase pieces, while the prices are still relatively low. Whether buyers are looking for figures, watercolor art, oil paintings of animals or landscapes, Emily Carr or John Geoffery Caruthers, Heffel auction house continues to grow at a surprising rate.
Australia has a capricious art marketplace, with auction houses frequently splintering off into smaller operations. The competition of elbow bumping art auctioneers includes: Bonham & Goodman, MossGreen, Joel Fine Art, Deutscher-Menzies, Sotheby’s and Deutscher & Hackett. Frontrunners Deutscher and Hackett had sales last year that topped $26 million and ran a $7-million auction recently, selling Brett Whiteley’s "View From the Sitting Room Window, Lavender Bay" for $1.5 million and Russell Drysdale’s "Red Landscape" for just over $1 million. Art consultant Ian Rogers told Australia’s Fairfax Digital / The New Age, "I don’t think [the market] is expanding quickly enough to accommodate all of the players." What can art collectors expect from one of Deutscher & Hackett’s massive fine art auctions? They have Tom Roberts, John Brack, Ian Fairweather, Arthur Boyds, Whiteley, Gascoigne and Dale Hickey, to name a few. Also look out for a wider selection of international art. "I am very excited about taking the opportunity of being so close to Asia," says Deutscher himself.
To view an online gallery of works of famous Australian painters and artists, visit www.AustralianPrints.com. There are no works for sale on this Australian artist tribute site, but the image galleries are superb and well worth having a browse through.
Where better to find original artwork than wealthy and fashionable London? Unlike the splintering Australian market or the sparse Canadian market, the bustling London market is full of amicable partnerships. Auction houses such as Christie’s Europe, leads the way with $4.6 billion in annual sales, innovative online interactive auctions, over 600 shows each year, multiple translators and a huge collection of Indian and Asian art ranging from $200 to over $80 million. For people in search of contemporary art for sale, Andy Warhols are in large supply. Also, Christie’s recently topped the marketplace in October’s Post War and Contemporary Art Week sales (exceeding $135 million)!
While the markets may be disparate, they each have something unique to offer. The international giants like Christie’s can be enticing, but often expensive, whereas the smaller niches in Canada remain the art collectors’ best kept secret. In an undervalued market, many can find amazing Inuit pieces and can buy original art for low prices. Australia auction houses have been trying to include more Aboriginal art for the history lovers.
Published by Collectibles Editor
Art & Auction Magazine - The well-established Art and Auction provides an insider’s view of the art world, with breaking art news, gallery exhibition previews, auction reviews and coverage of art controversies and trends.
