A sculptured slithering copper snake by renowned artist Bronwyn Oliver has sold for a recording-breaking $1.25 million at auction.

Tide (2000) toppled the record for an Australian sculpture when it went under the auction hammer on Wednesday night.

Auction house Smith & Singer – formerly known as Sotheby’s – had billed the work as the most valuable Australian sculpture ever offered for auction in Australia.

It was sold as part of a sale of important Australian works, a star lot alongside Brett Whiteley’s Dove in Blue Palm, Lavender Bay (1983), which sold for $2.75 million (with buyer’s premium), above its estimate of between $1.6 million and $1.9 million.

The harbour scene painted from Whiteley’s window ledge at his Lavender Bay home, eschewed his usual ultramarine blues. Whiteley had produced a “literate, sensual and quietly joyous celebration of the good art and the good life”, Geoffrey Smith, chairman of Smith & Singer, said. Two other Whiteley works were passed in.

The standing auction record for Australian sculpture was achieved by Smith & Singer in August 2023, when Joel Elenberg’s Mask 1 (1982) fetched $1,156,250 (including premium), more than double the lower estimate of $350,000 to $450,000.

Earlier this year, another work by Oliver, Sun (2004), sold for $875,000, a record for the artist.

Sculpture is having something of a moment in the sun.

John Keats, chief executive of Menzies, said his auction house had been championing sculptures at auction for several years and achieving some outstanding results and records.