AUSTRALIA’S MOST SIGNIFICANT PRIVATE COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS AND NON-INDIGENOUS ART, THE LAVERTY COLLECTION, TOURS LONDON AND NEW YORK AHEAD OF ITS SYDNEY MARCH AUCTION AT BONHAMS

Previews in London in February, and New York in March, ahead of Sydney auction at the Museum of Contemporary Art on 24 March 2013.

The Laverty Collection auction will be one of the most important single owner sales to be held in Australia, and as a mark of its significance, highlights from the collection will travel to London and New York for viewings ahead of its auction on 24 March 2013 at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The auction is estimated to be worth between AUD$3.88 million to AUD$5.57 million, making it Australia’s most valuable sale of a single collection of Indigenous and non-indigenous contemporary Australian art.

Over forty years of intimate engagement with the Australian art world, the Lavertys have built an outstanding collection, ranging from the dynamism, spontaneity and stunning originality of Australia’s best Indigenous artists, to the cool conceptualism, stimulating abstracts, and slow-burning surrealism of Australia’s leading contemporary artists.

For Dr Colin and Mrs Elizabeth Laverty there is no differentiating between Indigenous and non-indigenous art. In their view, and increasingly in the view of museums worldwide, Indigenous art is recognised as contemporary art, rather than pigeonholed as ethnographic art. Bonhams will follow suit when it auctions 266 works from the Laverty Collection in March 2013.

Highlights touring London and New York include major works by William Robinson, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Rosalie Gascoigne, Eubena Nampitjin, Boxer Milner Tjampitjin, Peter Booth, John Mawurndjul, Ildiko Kovacs, Ken Whisson, Tommy Watson, Paddy Bedford, Aida Tomescu, Louise Hearman, Robert Klippel, Prince of Wales, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, and Sunfly Tjampitjin.

The Laverty Collection features museum-quality works that have been sought by and lent to major galleries around the world, including the

State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and, most recently, Paris’s Musée du quai Branly as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s touring exhibition Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art.

Bonhams’ senior consultant Tim Klingender said: “During the last four decades, Dr Colin and Mrs Elizabeth Laverty have been among the most active collectors of Australian contemporary art (both indigenous and non-indigenous), continually pursuing works from contemporary art galleries and remote art centres, collecting artists in depth and setting artists’ records when buying exceptional examples at auction.

“They have witnessed, and been part of, the flourishing trajectory of Australian Aboriginal art, at a time when this constantly evolving field has seen many prices grow exponentially, and new movements and art stars emerge.

“As Australia's only international auction house, Bonhams is in a unique position to take this exceptional collection of Australian contemporary art onto the world stage, holding previews at our galleries in London and New York in February and March, and in Melbourne in March, before the exhibition and auction at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.”

Auction: Sunday, 24 March 2013, Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art.

Previews:

February 14 to 19, Bonhams London;

March 2 to 6, Bonhams New York;

March 15 to 17, fortyfive downstairs, Melbourne;

March 22 to 24, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.




Bonhams

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments go to www.bonhams.com.