Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?

Abstract

Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910–1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926–1998) are three of Australia’s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting—Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus..