A sculptured slithering copper snake by renowned artist Bronwyn Oliver has sold for a recording-breaking $1.25 million at auction.
The work Tide (2000) toppled the record for an Australian sculpture when it went under the auction hammer Wednesday night.
Auction house Smith & Singer – formerly known as Sotheby’s – had billed the work as the most valuable Australian sculpture ever offered for auction in Australia.
Bronwyn Oliver’s Tide with Brett Whiteley’s Dove in Blue Palm, Lavender Bay.
It was sold as part of sale of important Australian works, a star lot alongside Brett Whiteley’s Dove in Blue Palm, Lavender Bay (1983), which sold for $2.75 million (with buyer’s premium), above its estimate of between $1.6 million to $1.9 million.
The harbour scene painted from Whiteley’s window ledge from his Lavender Bay home, eschewed his usual ultramarine blues. Whiteley had produced a “literate, sensual and quietly joyous celebration of the good art and the good life,” Geoffrey Smith, chairman of Smith & Singer said. Two other Whiteley works were passed in.
The standing auction record for Australian sculpture was achieved by Smith & Singer in August 2023 when Joel Elenberg’s Mask 1 (1982) fetched $1,156,250 (including premium), more than double the lower estimate of $350,000-$450,000.
Earlier this year, another work by Oliver, Sun (2004) sold for $875,000, a record for the artist.
Sculpture is having something of a moment in the sun.
Menzies’ chief executive John Keats said his auction house had been championing sculptures at auction for several years and achieving some outstanding results and records.
