In Warlugulong, how is the Sale history discussed?
Warlugulong was first exhibited at a show in Alice Springs, where it attracted crowds of interested viewers, but failed to sell. Realities Gallery in Melbourne then included the work in a major exhibition of Papunya Tula artworks. It was purchased for A$1,200 by the Commonwealth Bank, which hung it in a bank training centre cafeteria on the Mornington Peninsula. The bank sold it by auction in 1996. The auction house trading the work expected it to fetch around $5,000 and did not make a feature of it in the catalogue, but dealers including Hank Ebes, the successful bidder, recognised the painting's significance and it sold for $36,000 plus commission. After hanging in Ebes's living room for eleven years, it was auctioned in Melbourne by Sotheby's on 24 July 2007. It sold for $2.4 million, thoroughly eclipsing the previous record for an Indigenous Australian painting, set when Emily Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation was bought in May of the same year for just over $1 million. Warlugulong's buyer was the National Gallery of Australia, which purchased the work as part of its 25th Anniversary Gifts Program. The Gallery considers the painting to be possibly the most important in its collection of Indigenous Australian art. As of 2016, the work is on display in the National Gallery.When the Australian government in 2009 introduced a resale royalty scheme, the sale history of Warlugulong was frequently used to argue in favour of the scheme, designed to ensure that artists and their families continued to benefit from the appreciating value of old works.
Papunya resale royalty Mornington Peninsula Realities Gallery Papunya Tula Emily Kngwarreye Indigenous Australian Commonwealth Bank National Gallery of Australia Melbourne Indigenous Earth's Creation Alice Springs Sotheby's