When is an art auction not an art auction?

When is an art auction not an art auction? It’s worth asking at a time when auction houses are experimenting with new sales models that blur the line between private and public, and that increasingly encroach on the turf of art dealers. Traditionally, auctions have been public events – the auctioneer’s hammer falls and the winning bid is known. But the pandemic has been a catalyst for change, and some auctions are now more akin to secret sales. As “discretion” becomes a selling point, is the transparency of the auction process at risk?

Two weeks ago, international powerhouse Sotheby’s launched its first “In Confidence: Selected Masterpieces” sale, a “silent” auction of just 13 lots, which the company described as “combining the discretion of a private sale with the dynamism of an auction”. The disparate lots, ranging from a 1960 Yayoi Kusama oil painting to a jade teapot from the Qing Dynasty, were on view at Sotheby’s Hong Kong gallery. Estimates were not given, written bids were submitted confidentially, and the sales results were not published. The bidding process was monitored by an independent auditor.

Locally, Smith & Singer are taking a similar approach with their “private auctions”, single-lot sales in which bidding occurs only by phone or absentee bid, with a live auctioneer. The bidding process is confidential, so too are the prices realised, although estimates are given.

Three weeks ago, Cressida Campbell’s woodblock painting Night Interior (2017), with an estimate of $200,000 to $250,000, was the first artwork offered at “private auction”. The work, which was exhibited in Berlin in 2017, at the Difficult Pleasures exhibition promoted by luxury car dealer turned art dealer, Byron Bay-based Steven Nasteski, sold for just under $500,000, setting a new record for the artist, and for a single work by a living Australian female artist. While publicly claiming an auction record, Smith & Singer would not reveal the exact selling price.

“It’s a private auction, not a public auction, so results are not published,” Smith & Singer chairman Geoffrey Smith told Saleroom.

But the ever-enthusiastic Nasteski, who also deals in Campbell’s work, was happy to tell.

“It sold for $380,000 hammer, plus 24.5 per cent buyer’s premium, and there were seven buyers bidding for it,” he said. “It’s a fabulous price. She’s an incredible artist. Geoffrey (Smith) asked me what I thought it would make, and I said, $350,000 hammer. Geoffrey said, ‘that’s a bit optimistic’. Of course, I was wrong, it made $380,000 hammer.”

Smith & Singer’s next “private auction”, at 6.30pm Thursday, is the sale of another Cressida Campbell woodblock painting, Interior with Chinese Lantern (2018), the first in a series of circular works, with an estimate of $220,000 to $260,000.

“We are very excited by the (private auction) model and we will be continuing to use it,” Smith told Saleroom. “We have wanted to do things discreetly. Others want the credit of making a sale, they want to be able to add to the tally on AASD (Australian Art Sales Digest, the online archive of auction results from 1969 to the present). That’s not our motivation. It’s about looking after the artist.”

On the subject of transparency, Smith says: “We do private sales all the time and they are not publicly announced. We are art dealers. Some of what we do is public auction, and some of what we do is by private treaty.”

Brisbane gallerist Philip Bacon, who is Campbell’s primary dealer, is more cautious about the effects of record prices on an artist’s career.

“My worry for someone like Cressida … is that these kinds of prices may not be sustainable. Night Interior is a beautiful, major work and it will be interesting to see what happens with this next work (Interior with Chinese Lantern), which is a little less obvious.”

A measure of confidentiality has long been part of the art auction system – the names of vendors and buyers are generally not revealed. But by not publishing sales results, privacy is stretched to a new level. Could such secrecy have positive ramifications for the industry, and, importantly, for artists, as Smith suggests? Or are so-called silent and private auctions yet another way for an unregulated industry to further camouflage its dealings?

Other local auction houses are sticking with the tradition of published sales results while also exploring new models online. Deutscher and Hackett launches the first of its “solo” online auctions next Wednesday at 7pm, in which just one, high-value artwork will be sold, starting with Del Kathryn Barton’s 2013 Archibald Prize winning portrait of Sydney actor Hugo Weaving. The work is being offered on the secondary market for the first time, at an estimate of $120,000 to $180,000, and the auction will be streamed live.

“I’m not sure who benefits from a private auction,” said Deutscher and Hackett’s executive director Chris Deutscher. “I don’t think the buyers are that sensitive that they don’t want their price released. And I don’t know why the business is so sensitive. I could understand at the top end of the market, where there are millions involved … that the buyer might not want the price published. But at this level?”

Del Kathryn Barton held the previous record for a living Australian female artist, for her work Of Pollen, 2013, which sold for $310,000 (hammer) at a Sotheby’s Australia (now Smith & Singer) auction in May 2018.

And for those missing the theatre of in-room auctions with a live audience, some good news. Menzies’ Winter Auction of Australian and International Fine Art and Sculpture is on July 9 in Sydney, and Deutscher and Hackett’s Important and International Fine art auction set for July 15, in Melbourne. “Physical distancing” will, of course, be carefully observed, and for those not quite ready to face the real world, both auctions will also be streamed live online.