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Joining the dots: Analysing the sustainability of the Australian Aboriginal art market

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios
Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
*
Department of Art History, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia Email: meaghanw@bigpond.net.au; mewi@unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

Sotheby’s estimates between fifty and seventy percent of the Aboriginal art it sells at auction is bought by international collectors. How do those buyers view their acquistions? On the Sotheby’s website, you will not find Aboriginal art listed with ‘Australian’ and ‘Contemporary Art’ under the ‘Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture’ department. Rather, it is classified as one of the ‘Ancient and Ethnographic Arts’, alongside ‘Antiquities’ and ‘Pre-Columbian Art’.

This paper will show that the promotion and perception of Aboriginal art as ethnographic rather than contemporary in nature is but one of a number of important aspects of the market that have implications for the industry’s long-term sustainability. This distinction has a significant effect on the way Aboriginal art is distributed, promoted and received by buyers and sellers. Collectors measure the value of ethnographic material by assessing its proximity to a culturally immaculate source. An object has the greatest ethnographic integrity if it emanates from a primitive, isolated community.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 58 , Issue 3: Cross-Cultural Art History in a Polycentered World , August 2011 , pp. 22 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2012

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