A former employee of both Christie's and Sotheby's, Mr Fraser was managing director of the latter from 2001 to 2007, before leaving to become the inaugural director of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Australia's biggest private museum.
His appointment to Bonhams comes in the wake of a period of upheaval that saw long-established auctioneer Tim Goodman end a six-year partnership with the company in 2009 as its Australian principal in order to establish one with Sotheby's only for that to end after just a year.
