 At a well known 1997 Sotheby's auction the same piece, "Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa" from the Tim Guthrie Collection of Early Western Desert Paintings sold for $206,000 to a Californian buyer for the record sum of $206,000 against an estimate of $50,000–$80,000.Warangkula was featured in the press as a dishevelled starving artist.Before the auction night, the National Indigenous Arts Advocacy Association had communicated with both Sothebys's and the Guthrie estate, highlighting the artist's circumstances and appealing for a donation from the proceeds, which was subsequently rejected.