Indigenous Australian auction sales

It is not always possible to have up-to-date or current data for statistical purposes. Some Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys are conducted on a regular basis: monthly, annually or every few years. Other major data collections such as the Census of Population and Housing are of a great scale and are only conducted every five years.

Other statistical analyses, such as the Australia Council�s The Arts Economy 1968�1998: Three Decades of Growth in Australia (Guldberg 2000) are major one-off studies that are so far-ranging, they can only be commissioned on a periodic basis. Although at first glance it may appear dated, this analysis gives an important historic perspective on the current state of the arts in Australia.

According to The Arts Economy, there was a major decline in all Australian artworks sold at auction in the early 1990s, attributed to an economic recession during this period.

In 1992, only 53 Indigenous artworks were sold at auction, with a total value of $176,000.

By 1997, the art market had recovered lost ground and in that year 716 Indigenous artworks were auctioned, with a total value of $3.8 million.

Indigenous art auction sales in 1997 were 22 times higher than in 1992.

Between 1996 and 1997 alone, Indigenous art auction sales almost tripled from $1.4 million to $3.8 million.

The vast majority of Indigenous artworks sold at auction are paintings. Over time, the nature of paintings sold has moved away from watercolours to mainly acrylic works.