Melbourne, 7 June 2012
Collectors of local art in Melbourne no longer know where to turn, as the city’s major auction houses, Sotheby’s and Mossgreen, have both used the name of media mogul John Kluge for their sales of aboriginal art.
Kluge, who died in 2010 at the age of 95, sold his Metromedia television network to 20th Century Fox for four billion dollars in 1986. After that, he began collecting Australian aboriginal art, and in 1997 he opened the Kluge-Ruhe collection to the public at the University of Virginia.
Kluge’s name is known for having collected quality pieces. Australian auction house Mossgreen was counting on this prestigious name to help sell 66 aboriginal art works from Kluge’s collection at a sale on 6 June.
There was, however, a thorn in the auctioneer’s side, as Mossgreen had publicised the sale under the impression that the collection was at the time of the collector’s death. Sotheby’s, however, announced that it would be auctioning eight works from the Kluge collection eight days previous.
Paul Sumner, the director general of Mossgreen, was disappointed that Sotheby’s has not only taken advantage of his company’s publicity for the sale but has also hosted their auction before Mossgreen’s. He went on to say “We have the higher quality works and we have priced them to sell in the current market”.
Mr Davidson, the director of Sotheby’s aboriginal art department, declined to say which individual had put the works up for sale, but pointed out that they had been listed in the catalogue as having “formerly been in the collection of John W.Kluge”. Kluge had three children from four marriages. As a consequence, it is not surprising that several pieces from his collection have come up for auction.
Nevertheless, the sale at Mossgreen took over half a million dollars which went to the University of Colombia in New York, in accordance with Kluge’s last wishes.