Pre sale estimates for works in the New Zealand Post Art Collection ranged from $2000 to $30,000 at the lower end.
One of these lots was a painting of a unique Maori Ratana Church situated on the outskirts of the central North Island ski town of Ohakune.
The pre-sale estimate of this large format crystal clear Steve Harris painting was $6,000 and that is where the bidding started, quickly rising to sell at $24,000, well above the top pre-sale estimate of $10,000.
Another large format work which exceeded the top end estimate was Gretchen Albrecht's Nomadic Geometrics (Rosy Space with Blue & Gold) (Lot 15 ) which sold for $33,000 exceeding the top presale estimate by $7,000
Some of the other large format ''corporate foyer'' works were not as easy to find homes for. John Pule's large unstretched Nuiean Tapa cloth inspired painting Ka Fai Mahaaho (Lot 16 ) of 1996 was passed in at only $18,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $30,000--$40,000
It was works from other vendors that made the sale a success with a small oval Charles F Goldie oil painting of Ena Te Papatahi (Lot 24 ) selling to a telephone bidder for a top sale price of $305,000, well above the high estimate of $240,000.
This was preceeded by a well resolved semi cubistic oil on board painting, Titirangi (Lot 23 ) by Colin McCahon from 1956 which sold for a very respectable $118,000 against a presale estimate of $100,000-$120,000
All prices shown are in $NZ.