Cloudless horizons at Menzies’ Melburnian May auction of Important Australian and International Art
By Lucie Reeves-Smith, on 08-May-2026
Breaking with tradition, Menzies’ May sale of 120 lots of Important Australian and International Art was only previewed to audiences in Melbourne, with the company deciding earlier this year to reduce operations in their longstanding Sydney office. Touted as a “decisive step into the digital world”, this change seemed to have had little immediate effect, with the auction producing strong results on the night, totalling over $6m and achieving clearance rates of 89.2% by volume.
"Breaking with tradition, Menzies’ May sale of 120 lots of Important Australian and International Art was only previewed to audiences in Melbourne, with the company deciding earlier this year to reduce operations in their longstanding Sydney office. Touted as a “decisive step into the digital world”, this change seemed to have had little immediate effect, with the auction producing strong results on the night, totalling over $6m and achieving clearance rates of 89% by volume."
Efforts were made to smooth this sudden transition toward Southern states, with Menzies’ staff catering to continued engagement from their Sydney and NSW clients with increased remote access - video calls supplementing the usual condition reports throughout the viewing process - and a continuation of a complimentary shuttle service of sold artworks to Sydney announced from behind the rostrum on the night. Reading the change as indicative of a retreat to the digital space did not ring especially true on the night. The saleroom remained full and sustained a jovial atmosphere throughout sale and importantly provided a range of bids, particularly on the affordable final lots. The “internet” did, however, deliver the highest bids, beginning with an opening offer of $600,000 on Fred Williams’ Pond in Landscape, 1965 (Lot 38 ) placed hours before the auction’s commencement; later contested by a phone bidder, resulting in a hammer price, again from the internet, of $850,000.
The auction opened with a rare group of paintings by the ever-popular “misty modern” Clarice Beckett, all consigned from the collection of Dale Trezise in Victoria. Of the six paintings included in Menzies’ sale, five were acquired in one go from a solo exhibition of Beckett’s works held at Niagara Galleries in 2014, joining a painting of Warburton already acquired from the same gallery by Mrs Trezise in the year 2000. All works sold well on the night, with the large and contemplative landscape Quiet Spot - The Empty Seat (Lot 3 ) selling for a hammer price of $75,000, almost doubling its low-end estimate and surpassing the $55,000 achieved for Marigolds in Meldrum’s Pot (Lot 4 ), which had carried higher pre-sale estimates of $60,000 - 80,000. The diffuse nocturne, Warburton (Lot 86 ), was also keenly chased by both phone and internet bidders, falling for a hammer price of $36,000, tripling the pre-sale low estimate - demonstrating that the painting had been worthy of inclusion amongst its peers at the front of the catalogue.
Placed alongside the Williams landscape in the preview exhibition was the second most valuable lot of the sale, Jeffrey Smart’s equally large painting, Outside the Ministry, 1970 (Lot 39 ). Offered from the collection of the late Rodney Menzies, the painting had last sold in November 2018 for a hammer price of $500,000, and was last night chased by at least two telephone bidders to reach a hammer price of $575,000, above pre-sale expectations of $400,000 - 600,000. While the Fred Williams landscape from 1965 was characterised by one lonely cloud, and the fluffy white clouds in the Smart constituted the only natural element within a cinematic cityscape, a reflected sea of clouds provided an illusory background for Yorta Yorta artist Lin Onus’ fish in a large painting from 1994, Cloud Fish (Lot 37 ). This painting carried the third highest pre-sale estimate of the night, $300,000 - 400,000, and was acquired by a phone bidder for one uncontested bid, resulting in a hammer price of $300,000. Continuing the appeal of a cloudy sky, this time superposed with stars and a comet, Tim Storrier’s panoramic 3 meter Landscape (Over the Night Road), 2008, surprisingly joined this group of high-prices, shooting well above its estimate to $270,000, hammered to a bidder the room. Another astounding result was provided by Brett Whiteley, the first of three lots billed as “three decades of Whiteley drawings from private collection, Sydney”. A bathroom nude, Shampoo, 1992 (Lot 43 ) steadily climbed through bidding increments, selling to a phone bidder for $250,000, eclipsing its pre-sale estimates of $70,000 - 90,000. The underbidder in the room consoled himself by acquiring not only the following two drawings at their low estimates, but also two of the heavily contested Whiteley prints towards the end of the night, with auctioneer Farrah encouraging the redirection of the collector’s funds across the many Whiteley lots of the sale.
Hanging behind the auctioneer throughout the sale, Emily Kam Kngwarreye’s bright and meandering The Anooralya Yam, 1995, was predictably chased by bidders from all angles. Featuring “all the right provenance” through Demore Gallery and Chapman Gallery, the painting sold for $220,000 to a bidder on the internet, perhaps indicative of the strong support for this artist amongst international buyers. International works included in the sale were also sold to the internet, including a lithograph by Wasily Kandinsky produced to raise funds for the Bauhaus School in 1923, and since retained in the family of a student of the school - Fröhlicher Aufstieg (Joyous Ascent), 1923 sold well against conservative estimates, for a hammer price of $50,000. A more opportunistic buy was presented by the suite of Brice Marden etchings After Botticelli (Lot 98 ), which sold for one bid of $80,000, even with fees a far cry from the record-breaking $135,000 it fetched during its last auction outing in 2023.
Record prices were achieved late in the night, with around 350 people still following along online. The monumental steel sculpture My Girls, 2015, by Martin George, spectacularly presented out the front of Menzies’ headquarters, sold to the internet for $34,000, easily breaking the artist’s existing auction record. Same with the following lot, Hidden Garden, 2005 by Peter Boggs, which sold to the web for almost triple its low estimate at $11,000. A large painting by James Drinkwater, consigned with identical provenance to the last record-breaking painting sold by Menzies at their last seasonal sale in November 2025, was offered last night with the highest pre-sale auction estimates seen for the artist’s work. Secured by an internet bidder, the painting sold for $70,000, easily setting a new record. Amongst the few lots that passed in on the night, a work by contemporary photorealist CJ Hendry (Lot 28 ) failed to sell against estimates of $90,000 - 120,000. Keen observers might remember this work from Menzies’ sale in March 2024, where it appeared at the time to have been sold to an online bidder for record price of $80,000 (the author understands this bid was later cancelled).