The Australian covers the end of the Australian auction season:

Some of the bigger, more obvious pieces sold for below their estimates at last night’s Melbourne sale – Sotheby’s final 2009 auction and its first as an independent auction house. But while cautious of saying the market had rebounded following the global financial crisis, Sotheby’s said the auction – which recorded total sales of $7.4 million and an 84 per cent clearance rate – was its strongest since the peak of the art boom in May 2007.

Art Buyers Bid Big at Sotheby’s Final Auction (The Australian)