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'Passing race' never so valued as now

By Andrew Stevenson

18 May 2004 - Unnamed and virtually unknown, the subjects face the camera with fixed poses, wooden and unmoving, surrounded by objects such as spears, nets, boomerangs and a dead kangaroo.

The studio setting only heightens a sense of the bizarre: wilting gum leaves accompany the subjects in front of a universal, painted background.

Australian Aborigines, their image taken by the German-born photographer John Lindt in Grafton in the 1870s, are now being offered for sale again by Bonhams in London.

The Lindt collection, 36 in all, will be auctioned - along with hundreds of contemporary and historic images - this week with an indicated price range of £45,000 to £62,000 ($115,000 to $168,000).

Ken Orchard, an artist who has researched Lindt's work, says his efforts to find out who the models were turned up "not a lot". Breastplates suggested they were probably Gumbaynggirr.

The names of King Charlie, King Harry of Swan Creek and Mary Ann of Ulmarra, can be distinguished.

The series - many of which are held by state libraries - helped make Lindt an international success. He won the gold medal at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial exhibition.

Their style, said Orchard, shows the limits of technology. Photography in the field was very difficult and subjects needed to stand, unmoving for several seconds. "There was a very big market for these sorts of images in the Western world at this time and Lindt was very canny as a businessman who had an eye for commercial success."

The Australian Town and Country Journal enthused in 1874 at the first successful attempt to represent Aborigines "truthfully as well as artistically . . . they are a faithful idea of the appearance of a race fast passing away".

Brenda Croft, an independent curator, calls them "fragile mirrors of dislocation", a phrase which captures a small part of the frustration felt by Aboriginal people on the far North Coast when told of the auction.

Michael Randall, co-ordinator of the Yaegl Local Aboriginal Land Council in Maclean couldn't believe the price.

"We're dead against them being sold," he said. "We're going to get in touch with whoever we can and maybe put a bid in but we haven't got that kind of ready cash. It's too much for the likes of us."

Senator Aden Ridgeway, a descendant of those depicted, called for the photographs to be returned to Australia.

"We cannot afford to lose any more elements of our indigenous history," he said.

"This is morally and historically destructive. What chance will we have of getting back records of my people's lives if they are sold off overseas?"

The Bonham's London sale is a test of the market for Australian photographs overseas, according to the Herald's photography writer, Robert McFarlane.

Up for auction is property from the Richard King Collection of 20th century Australian photography. It includes many iconic works, among which are Max Dupain's Sunbaker, Olive Cotton's Tea Cup Ballet, Lewis Morley's portait of Christine Keeler, Tracey Moffatt's Something More No 1 and works by Bill Henson.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

New auction record set in London for Aboriginal Photographs

Bonhams, Knightsbridge

19 May 2004 - Thirty-one 19th Century photographic prints of Aborigines by J W Lindt of Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, sold in London at Bonhams for a new auction record of Aus $135,000.

There were sighs of relief amongst the Yaegel local Aboriginal people of the Maclean District of North Coast NSW when a collection of photographs of Aborigines was repatriated to Australia last night (Tuesday, May 18) at Bonhams first London Sale of Photography.

Sydney fine art auctioneers, Bonhams & Goodman, consigned the 31 photographic prints by Victorian photographer J.W Lindt (1845-1926) to the Bonhams inaugural sale of International Photography, conducted over two days in London this week.

The group fetched Aus $135,000 when they were sold to a Sydney philanthropic family who were bidding by phone. The buyer wished to remain anonymous but said this morning that the family intends to hold discussions with a number of museums who may be interested in the collection.

Although there are numerous Lindts in public institutional collections, none are as extensive or in as good a condition as these.

A celebrated 1937 print of a gum tree by Harold Cazneaux (Australian 1878-1953) established a new auction record when it fetched Aus $11,250 - almost four times the previous auction record of Aus $3,290 achieved in December 2002.

The second session of Bonhams' Photographic sale will be conducted in the refurbished New Bond Street rooms on Thursday evening (May 20). Major works by Bill Henson, Max Dupain, Tracey Moffatt, Lewis Morley and others are expected to attract further strong bidding from around the world.

Source: Bonhams

Record price paid for slice of history

By Andrew Stevenson

20 May 2004 - A couple from Sydney's eastern suburbs has paid a record price for an early photographic series of Aborigines to return them to Australia for public display.

The couple, who did not want to be named, spent £54,000 ($137,000) to buy 36 photographs taken by John Lindt in Grafton in the 1870s.

The series was auctioned by Bonhams in London but a catalogue advertising the listed works - featuring a nude portrait of Christine Keeler - had been discarded by the couple.

Alerted to the imminent sale by an article in the Herald on Tuesday, the couple made last-minute arrangements to bid by phone, said Tim Goodman of Bonhams & Goodman, Australia.

"The woman called her husband and he came to our rooms immediately and arranged a phone bid," Mr Goodman said. "He came back at 10pm on Tuesday night and I had to open up our rooms to show him five of the photographs that we still had here. He loved them. He was very excited and amazed at the condition and he even asked me if they were real. He went home and proceeded to buy them an hour later."

Australian Democrat Senator Aden Ridgeway, a descendant of the Gumbaynggirr people depicted in the works, was stunned by the news.

"I can tell you indigenous people on the North Coast would be very pleased and very thankful to this anonymous philanthropist," he said.

"I'm speechless . . . and I'm immensely pleased a wealthy philanthropist has come forward. While I appreciate they are a collector of Australiana it's important they are available to all Australians as a little known part of our history."

If a suitable cultural institution could not be found on the North Coast, Senator Ridgeway hoped the works might be displayed in the Powerhouse Museum or the National Indigenous Archives in Canberra.

The series of staged studio shots feature Aboriginal people in fine physical health four decades after cedar cutters settled in the Clarence River valley.

Senator Ridgeway said the first Europeans had worked alongside members of his own family in timber getting and boat building.

The photographs were a strong message to young indigenous people that the present situation of Aboriginal people was not a consequence of the pre-European past.

"It really shows things have gone backwards in contemporary times," he said.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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