The sale got off to a good start but the pace was quite slow,as it took an hour to get to the lot that had created all the publicity, lot 45, Goldie's A Noble Relic Of A Noble Race, Wharekauri Tahuna Aged 102, Chieftain Of The Arawa Tribe (Lot 45 ) and dated 1941.
Estimated at $800,000 to $1,200,000, bidding started at $600,000 and quickly rose to $980,000. There was a round of applause from the crowd when the $1 million mark was reached and the bidding continued until the hammer finally fell at $1,175,000 to more applause.
Art history had been made as this was the first painting ever to crack the ''million dollar mark'' at auction. A red letter day for the secondary market and all that sail with it here in New Zealand
For the international reader not familiar with the New Zealand art world, this cultural segment has grown slowly and is relatively ''pint sized'' and conservative compared to the much larger and complex Australian art market, where the million dollar mark has the been broken many times for both historical and contemporary art works at auction. It raises the question as to when a contemporary New Zealand artwork will break that barrier.
Records continued to be broken when a Goldie drawing 31 lots later was sold for another record price of $80,000. The small post card sized pencil study was of Anaha (Lot 66 ), the highly regarded Te Arawa master carver Anana Te Rahui who died in 1913. This Goldie drawing was very photographic and was dedicated to his wife Olive and dated 1931 so it was not a study from life. Did anybody really care, as Charles F. Goldie is often seen as GILT [GUILT] EDGED investment art in capital letters and as demand exceeds supply, prices continue to rise and reach these dizzy heights. Both of the Goldies came from the same collection and had spent a considerable time in Australia, as after Goldie's death in 1947 his widow Olive settled in Australia and these two important works were originally part of her estate.
In all, the 130 lot auction sold just over $2 million worth of art on the night and once the after-sale offers have gone through, the auctioneer Richard Thomson expects that final sale results will be in the $2.5 million zone
Some other good prices recorded on the night were $92,500 for Don Binney's Tomtit. Cornwallis, (Lot 43 ) John Barr Clarke Hoyte's watercolour of the Pink Terrace Rotomahana (Lot 46 ) for $57,500 and $62,500 for Colin McCahon's Small Landscape (Lot 38 ) from 1964
All prices are in $NZ.
