Bonhams Australia announced the formation of an Aboriginal Art department today:

Two former staff from the Aboriginal Art department at Sotheby’s Australia, Francesca Cavazzini and Greer Adams, have been employed by Bonhams as Specialists in Charge of the Aboriginal Art Department. The new department will be advised in all aspects of its operation by Tim Klingender (former Director of Aboriginal Art at Sotheby’s Australia), in his role as Senior Consultant.

Tim Klingender BA (Fine Art) Melbourne University, is widely credited with establishing an ethical, sophisticated, and highly successful international market in the field of Aboriginal Art, where, over a twenty year period, he and his team exhibited tightly curated catalogues of exceptional Aboriginal Art in the USA and Europe prior to auction is Australia. Throughout this period Klingender continually oversaw new benchmark prices established across the field, and the sales successes attracted many major Aboriginal art collections to be repatriated to Australia for sale. Amongst his many career highlights was the sale of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s epic early canvas Warlugulong, 1977, to the National Gallery of Australia for AUD$2.4million in 2007.

Francesca Cavazzini and Greer Adams have degrees in Art History and Theory from the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne respectively, and have worked alongside Tim Klingender and respected indigenous art expert Wally Caruana, cataloguing, researching, exhibiting and selling Aboriginal Art. Francesca Cavazzini worked closely with Tim Klingender for the past six years, graduating from administrator, to cataloguer and then assistant specialist, and is now extremely enthusiastic about making her mark as a specialist. Greer Adams has developed a broad knowledge of the culture and society of Indigenous Australians in her former position of Administrator and Cataloguer in Aboriginal Art. She is deeply committed to the field, and has been working as Exhibition Coordinator of the Mangkaja Art and Resource Agency, in Fitzroy Crossing, prior to her agreeing to take on her new shared role at Bonhams.

Bonhams also announced its first Modern and Contemporary Turkish Art sales in London this coming April:

Representing Bonhams in Turkey is Erdem Sontur, a graduate of Istanbul University with a degree in Art History and Archaeology. He has a longstanding connection with the Trigg Foundation for Byzantine and Ottoman Studies which organises cultural courses in Turkey. He has a keen interest in Modern and Contemporary Turkish Art. He comments: “I am looking forward to promoting Turkish Art worldwide through this exciting new association with Bonhams which has now set up a base in my native city of Istanbul.”