Maltese modernist art has been auctioned off at record-breaking prices, with a painting by Ray Pitrè – bought for €700 in 1996 – selling for €45,000 last weekend, “taking the local art scene to another level”.

Arabesque was originally purchased by Joseph Agius for Lm300 in the mid-1990s and the auction sale has “consecrated Pitrè as one of the giants of Maltese modernism”, its former owner said.

His other six works all broke records in terms of cost, with Scream Spreading Sideways and The Decaying Figure fetching more than €27,000 each, and a portrait of the artist’s mother selling for €25,000.

The jam-packed auction sale of what was considered to be “one of the most inclusive and important collections in Malta” – including major paintings, sculptures, ceramics and museum pieces – was the most attended ever, with 320 registered buyers on the day, according to Obelisk Auctions.

The interest from serious collectors, as well as many observers, was described as “huge” and unprecedented, cementing the popularity of Maltese modernist art.

Other smashed records include Caesar Attard’s In Bed, which sold for €28,000, Josef Kalleya’s St Francis sculpture at €24,000, while Joseph Genius’s Nativity sculpture, Frans Galea’s work of art and George Fenech’s nude went for €20,000 each.

A collection of 250 local masterpieces

These records have proven that interest in this period of Maltese art – dating from post-World War II to the 2000s – has grown exponentially since the millennium and was a “totally different ball game” from when Agius started collecting some 30 years ago.

Since then, he had amassed a unique and sought-after collection of some 250 masterpieces of Maltese modernist art, which “no one in their right mind would sell”.

On average, he would spend no more than €700 on artworks between the mid and late 1990s, and never more than €14,000, when he cultivated this interest – out of boredom and somewhat blindly, at a time when no one could be bothered about this period and its artists.

Now, he estimates, he has made a conservative 1,000 per cent return on his original “accidental” investment, eventually intended to be a pension fallback.

After 2001, Agius started buying more expensive art at a much slower rate, spending the most – €17,000 – on a Giorgio Preca work, now in the hands of Heritage Malta and the only purchase that did not pay off.

The national agency for cultural heritage bought two works for MUŻA, with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage exercising its ‘right of preference’ power.

It now owns the Preca Crucifixion bozzetto for €17,000, the Cyclist sculpture by Galea for €13,000 and an Antoine Camilleri lino print of St Francis for €1,500.

The auction saw other “great” results, but not records: Camilleri’s Kristu Rebaħ il-Mewt sold for €34,000. But his works have fetched €40,000 in the past.

Prices for Camilleri’s In His Tomb, Prisoner of Art and Resurrection ranged between €21,000 and €26,000.

Praising the professionalism of auctioneer Pierre Grech Pillow, Agius put the success down to the “rarity of the seminal masterpieces”, considering the output of these artists, but said it was also due to the growth in interest – and “money to spend”.

While he would not necessarily know who bought these works because some bid on the phone and others sent a representative, Agius said several serious collectors were “fiercely” fighting for the Pitrès, Attards and the Kalleya sculpture.

“These are the type of people who would rather buy a piece of art than a boat or a car,” he said.

As for his foresight, Agius, an art writer for Times of Malta, pointed at luck, saying he would never have guessed that the interest in this art would have grown so huge in three decades.

'A mixed bag of feelings' for the owner

For him, the auction provoked a “mixed bag of feelings”. On the one hand, he was sad to see the pieces go, but on the other, he was glad his investment – frowned upon by many in the past– had paid off.

While he expected Camilleri’s works to do well, he was surprised at how well the other artists did, showing Pitrè and Kalleja to be greats of Malta’s 20th century art.

Even Pitrè’s minor works sold for €700, “vindicating” his position, together with Kalleya, in Maltese modernism, contested by many before the auction.

They had never seen his real work, but only his worthless commissions, Agius maintained.

“The auction outcome also showed the art scene in Malta was reaching a level it had never dreamed of, with prices similar to those of international artists and not their local counterparts, who, years back, had been derided.

“It shows the Maltese art scene is going places big time,” said Agius.

And so is he…

The auction has brought his family’s six-year dream to pack up and leave Malta for Ireland next year closer to reality.

With enough money to uproot themselves and buy a “decent” house in Cork, they will be following their daughter as she pursues her university studies there, stocking up on the lack of nature here and going for a refreshing change of scene.

Their new home may be devoid of art, unlike how it was for the last 30 years, but it was thanks to these masterpieces of modernism that the Agius family could make its move.