Coronavirus hit the art world hard, with art auction sales the slowest in 22 years, but some sellers, such as art specialist Gene Sherman, are rolling the dice.
For 17 years, Gene Sherman has owned a striking Saddam Hussein portrait by the late Indigenous artist Gordon Bennett.
The mixed catalogue of 129 mostly Indigenous and contemporary Australian artworks is expected to sell for between $5 million and $6.7 million. Damian Hackett, executive director at fine art auction house Deutscher and Hackett, hasn't seen anything like this in three decades in the industry.With restrictions still in place, Sotheby's London recently staged a multi-city, multi-camera livestream auction where a Francis Bacon tryptic sold for a respectable $US85 million.
"The industry is about $20 million [down on] last year. That's $20 million of unspent money, or pent-up demand."
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