Press

Unravelling the art market with a click of your mouse - October 2006

artrecord.com, already the most authoritative and inclusive art price index, has recently added a powerful statistical function, allowing comparisons of values between artists and/or various media. The analysis, either by clear and precise line graph or bold and dramatic bar graphs, can, at the click of your mouse give you an instant summation of any artist's sales and values over the entire 33 years of the database. We believe that that this is the only art values database of Australian and New Zealand artworks to cover such an extended period.

If you are not already aware of artrecord.com, we are a web-based information service providing a 33-year auction price history of the Australian and New Zealand art industry. The information, from the publication, AUSTRALIAN ART AUCTION RECORDS has been compiled from Australian art auctions since 1973 (and New Zealand since 1989), and is updated throughout the year. This is an unparalleled collection of data, which is accompanied by extensive biographical details of artists. Over 10,000 artists, 194,000 paintings with a value of $975,000,000 are listed and easily accessed.

The "WATCHLIST" brings a new and better statistical function, allowing you to compare the market values of the works of several artists (of your choice) or of different media groups by the same artist. For example you could make a watch list containing ARTHUR BOYD, SIDNEY NOLAN, ALBERT TUCKER and JOHN PERCEVAL. At the click of your mouse you can see - in either line or bar graph - a comparison of the quantity and values of their works sold over the entire 33 years of the database. Alternatively, you can filter out one or more of the available media groups (eg oils, watercolours, etc) for comparison across artists. Or, if you wish, you can compare the market trends of different media groups by the same artist.

Should you be interested in further information please look us up at artrecord.com. For further information and for media interviews about the service, please call: Jarrod McGrath on (02) 9943 2425. See for yourself just how it could assist you with any research into the art industry.

Introducing Watchlists artrecord.com is pleased to introduce watchlist functionality. Subscribers can now maintain their own watchlists and graph artist sales by year and media group. click here to find out more.

The Australian Financial Review, "Saleroom", Thursday 15 July 2004, Terry Ingram

Many new buyers and leading operators in the Australian art market are stymied by their lack of memory.

They don't have the benefit of experience of the last big Australian art boom in the 1980s and, perhaps more importantly its aftermath. They find it hard to appreciate the prices that traditional and modern art fetched at that time and what goes up can also come down.

This was clear when Christie's Australia announced - but later withdrew - the claim that its sale of a work by the modernist Margaret Preston for AUD$118,000 was an auction record. It had, after all, checked the price with Australian Art Sales Digest. But John Furphy's very useful website and hard-cover annual AASD publications on art prices go back only to the early 1990s.

For a AUD$120 annual subscription to Edward Craig's www.artrecord.com, a search of an artist's saleroom history will bring up a biography and pages of the artist's prices covering the two great art booms and stretching back to 1974. The record for Preston comes up as AUD$340,000 paid in 1989 - one of 383 prices recorded.

Craig is one of the salesroom's great survivors. His records include many works sold at his own Sydney auctions. These have always included a high percentage of works by David Boyd and Hugh Sawrey, which, coincidentally, have become hot on the market at recent sales.

Australian Art Auction Records "on-line" - March 2004

We are pleased to advise that Australian Art Auction Records is now available "on-line".

An unprecedented 32 years of records of Australian art auction sales (and 16 years of New Zealand sales) totalling nearly AUD$785 million are now accessible on-line. Collectors and researchers can use the extensive search facility to access precise information about more than 172,000 Australasian works of art by almost 10,000 artists sold by 50 contributing auction houses.

Australian Art Auction Records, compiled by Sydney art auctioneer, Ted Craig, has been available since 1975 in a regularly updated publication - and, more recently - on CD Rom. It has become the industry benchmark in Australia and New Zealand for historical art auction reporting. Now the data, which includes biographies of 3,500 artists, has been fed into an easy-to-use on-line database enabling users to find out just about everything there is to know about the Australasian art auction market over the last 31 years.

By searching on an artist's name, a 'summary report' appears in an instant, telling you the total number of sales of the artist's work, their total value, and the average and record prices for that artist. With just one click, the 'Detail Report' appears, listing the artist's biography (if available), the 'hammer price' (which excludes taxes and premiums) of each artwork sold, its medium, title, lot number, sale date and selling auctioneer. Art works sold in New Zealand include prices in both NZ and Australian currencies.

Further, users may apply filters to extract specific information - such as sales of an artist's work in a given period, or in a particular medium, or by a specific auction house, or within a certain price range. Or you can sort on title - you may want to extract only Arthur Boyd's Shoalhaven paintings or Sid Nolan's Kelly paintings, for instance. The results will include the value and average prices applying to the filter chosen.

A number of standard searches are also included for subscribers such as total sales by medium, sales greater then 50k, most traded artists & record prices. Standard filters and sort criteria may also be applied to the results. New Zealand Summaries and Prices are also provided.

The on-line subscription service has been designed and developed by Jarrod McGrath. Jarrod has over 15 years computing experience developing and implementing solutions such as this.

Subscriptions are priced at AUD$25.00 per month or AUD$120.00 per year.

We believe this is a very powerful service and will be invaluable to followers of the art auction market. But, don't believe us. Try it for yourself at artrecord.com. For further information and for media interviews about the service, please call: Jarrod McGrath on (02) 9943 2425.