Since its publication in 1964, Australians have used the title of Donald Horne’s book, The Lucky Country, as a term of self-reflective endearment to express the social and economic benefits afforded to the population by the country’s wealth of geographical and environmental advantages. These same advantages, combined with strict border closures, have proven invaluable in protecting Australia from the ravages of the global COVID-19 pandemic, in comparison to many other countries. However, elements of Australia’s arts sector have not been so fortunate. The financial damage of pandemic-driven closures of exhibitions, art events, museums, and art businesses has been compounded by complex government stimulus packages that have excluded many contracted arts workers. Contrarily, a booming fine art auction market and commercial gallery sector driven by stay-at-home local collectors demonstrated remarkable resilience considering the extraordinary circumstances. Nonetheless, this resilience must be contextualised against a decade of underperformance in the Australian art market, fed by the negative impact of national taxation policies and a dearth of Federal government support for the visual arts sector. This paper examines the complex and contradictory landscape of the art market in Australia during the global pandemic, including the extension of pre-pandemic trends towards digitalisation and internationalisation. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis, the paper concludes that Australia is indeed a ‘lucky country’, and that whilst lockdowns have driven stay-at-home collectors to kick-start the local art market, an overdue digital pivot also offers future opportunities in the aftermath of the pandemic for national and international growth.

中文翻译：

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“幸运国”：COVID-19 大流行如何重振澳大利亚昏昏欲睡的艺术市场

自 1964 年出版以来，澳大利亚人一直使用唐纳德·霍恩 (Donald Horne) 的书《幸运国度》( The Lucky Country )，作为一种自我反省的爱称，表示国家丰富的地理和环境优势为人民带来的社会和经济利益。与许多其他国家相比，这些相同的优势，再加上严格的边境关闭，已证明在保护澳大利亚免受全球 COVID-19 大流行的蹂躏方面非常宝贵。然而，澳大利亚艺术界的元素就没有这么幸运了。大流行导致的展览、艺术活动、博物馆和艺术企业关闭造成的经济损失，因复杂的政府刺激计划而加剧，这些计划将许多签约的艺术工作者排除在外。相反，考虑到特殊情况，由居家本地收藏家推动的蓬勃发展的美术拍卖市场和商业画廊行业表现出非凡的韧性。尽管如此，由于国家税收政策的负面影响和联邦政府对视觉艺术部门的支持不足，这种弹性必须与澳大利亚艺术市场十年来表现不佳的情况相结合。本文探讨了全球大流行期间澳大利亚艺术市场复杂而矛盾的格局，包括大流行前趋势向数字化和国际化的延伸。通过定性和定量分析，该论文得出结论，澳大利亚确实是一个“幸运的国家”，虽然封锁已促使居家收藏家启动当地艺术市场，