"I think that people are realising that the art market has been historically in the last five years a very good place for people to invest,"
A RARE 1950s portrait by late Melbourne artist John Brack could fetch up to $2 million, breaking the record for the highest price paid for a modern Australian painting.
The work, entitled The Bar, will be auctioned next month in a sale which Sotheby's describes as the "most important mid-20th century painting to have come to market in many years".
The painting is a portrait of a barmaid in a Victorian bar.
Justin Miller, chairman of Sotheby's art auction house in Australia, said the work was estimated to be worth between $1.5 and $2 million.
The highest price paid for a modern Australian painting was $1.98 million for a portrait of Sydney's Lavender Bay by the late Brett Whiteley, sold in 1999.
Brack's painting will go on view at the Sotheby's Sydney gallery tomorrow, alongside a 1974 portrait also by Whiteley, which is expected to fetch up to $700,000.
Whiteley's painting, another scene of Lavender Bay, is titled Dove and Dusk and is the most important painting from the artist's Lavender Bay collection to appear on the market in recent years.
Both paintings will be auctioned in Melbourne on April 11.
Mr Miller said the two paintings, which had come from private collections in Victoria and NSW and had been in Sotheby's auction room for about six weeks, were part of a collection of 57 portraits to be auctioned.
"It's the highest value mixed vendor auction for many years in Australia and we think it could make up to $8 million," Mr Miller said.
He said the importance of the Brack portrait could not be overestimated.
"That's why we anticipate this very strong price," he said.
The painting by Whiteley, one of Australia's most significant artists of the 20th century who won key prizes, including the noted Archibald, was a "sensual, evocative image" painted from the artist's studio overlooking Lavender Bay.
"It sort of embodies a period of his time when he was very happy.
"It's a very joyous, subtle, luscious painting," Mr Miller said.
He said already there had been interest in both paintings from both serious private buyers and institutions.
Mr Miller said the art market was reaching record highs.
"I think that people are realising that the art market has been historically in the last five years a very good place for people to invest," he said.
"(And) internationally the fine art market is performing extremely buoyantly at the moment."peThe highest price paid for an Australian painting is $2.3 million for a portrait by 19th Century master Frederick McCubbin, which was sold six years ago.