A$2.1M Aboriginal Art Auction Record

Source: Mbantua Gallery

A work by the late Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye sold for A$2.1 million, setting a new record for a work by an Australian female painter in 2017. Earth’s Creation 1, a large work from the Utopia artist, painted in 1994, sold for nearly double the price paid for it 10 years earlier, when it sold for A$1.056 million in 2007, (it was the first Aboriginal artwork to break the million-dollar mark at auction). Kngwarreye painted the 6.32 metre by 2.75 metre acrylic on canvas on four panels in her 80s, just two years before her death. It’s the second-highest price for an Aboriginal work, behind the A$2.4 million paid a decade ago for Warlugulong by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri.

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