Sotheby’s. Aboriginal and Oceanic Art. Melbourne, 26 & 27 July 2010

Melbourne : Sotheby’s Australia, 2010. Auction catalogue. Quarto (270 x 210 mm), illustrated stiff wrappers, pp 272, with 341 lots, all illustrated in colour, and index of artists; contains many paintings by contemporary Central and Western Desert artists; works by Albert Namatjira, Tommy McRae, and Brook Andrew; Arnhem Land barks; Tiwi sculptures, and traditional artefacts; front cover lightly marked, but an excellent copy, with the printed prices realised sheet loosely inserted, along with Adrian Newstead’s alarming article from the AASD reporting on this sale, headed Disastrous Sotheby’s Aboriginal Art Sale Puts Entire Art Industry on Notice. Newstead writes: ‘What a shocker … a room full of people but bereft of vitality, drained of animation, as lot after lot failed to inspire bidding’. Let those words be a warning to all potential investors in this fickle art market.