Bronwyn Oliver’s Tide breaks record for Australian sculpture after selling for $1m

Bronwyn Oliver’s Tide (2000) was put up for auction by the Fink family, who commissioned it for their high-end Sydney restaurant Quay. Photograph: Smith & Singer

The late Sydney artist Bronwyn Oliver has broken the sales record for Australia sculpture, with her monumental 2000 work Tide fetching $1m at auction, or $1.25m with buyer’s premium, in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

The sale surpasses the record set by Joel Elenberg’s 1978 sculpture Mask 1, which sold for $925,000, or $1,156,250 including buyer’s premium in August 2023, against an estimate of $300,000-$450,000. It also bests Oliver’s previous sales record of $700,000, which was set in April this year with the sale of her smaller 2004 sculpture, Sun.