Bonhams' auction of the Laverty Collection, held on March 24 in Sydney, has become the most successful contemporary art sale in Australian history.

Willam Robinson's Blue Pools Springbook made $535,822

The auction totalled US$5.2m, as some of the finest examples of both indigenous and non-indigenous contemporary Australian art went under the hammer at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Top lot of the sale went to William Robinson's Blue Pools Springbook, which sold for $535,822.

The auction saw nine new auction records, five of which were for the work of indigenous artists. The most valuable of these was Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri's Untitled (Rain Dreaming at Nyunman), a 1994 work that sold for $219,600, surpassing the artist's previous record of $210,000 by 4.5%.

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