Belle-àŽle indeed: Record smashed in biggest sale in a decade

For context, this is still less than the highest grossing single-owner sale, achieved by Bonhams in 2013 when it sold Australian television pioneer Reg Grundy's art collection for $19.2 million. Deutscher and Hackett's big draw card was, of course, Souvenir de Belle-àŽle, Russell's portrait of his wife Marianna on the island in Brittany, France, where the couple lived for many years. Sidney Nolan's Early Morning Township, 1955, sold for $2.7 million at Deutscher and Hackett. "It was a central magnet for the whole auction," Deutscher told Saleroom. "There were six quite keen bidders on it. Six bidders at or above…