The Banksy's in the sale, five prints and one original work, featured some of of the artist's more recognisable motifs and important images, but before these works were offered, there were eight lots from gallerist Judith Anderson to start the sale. A varied mix of photography by Ann Shelton and Peter Perter sat alongside sculptural works by Warren Viscoe and Paratene Matchitt, an etching by significant Irish/ American artist Sean Scully and a painting by Michael Smither. The current exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery, Toi Tu Toi Ora showcasing work by Maori artists over the past 60 years appears to be fuelling great interest in the work of underrated Maori practitioners. Horse No.41 by Paratene Matchitt, (Lot 2 ) a large scale work, would have been difficult to sell not so long ago. It seems that the tide has turned this year and this highly recognisable sculpture from the major Te Kooti series realised $30,000 against a low estimate of $25,000.
IAC have recently had success selling the work of Max Gimblett and Karl Maughan, two contemporary artists who are represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland. Both artists were featured in this auction and both found sale prices well over comparable gallery retail prices. Max Gimblett’s painting The Lamp to Light the World 2015 (Lot 11 ) realised $36,000 hammer against a low estimate and gallery retail of $25,000 and Karl Maughan’s Tremaine Ave (Lot 42 ) sold for $34,000 against a low estimate of $24,000 and an even lower retail price of $22,000. The run on ‘over-retail’ prices for the Maughan works at auction could be due to the fact that his work sells out before the exhibitions open and his dealer galleries run a waiting list for new work. Often the works appearing at auction are the only opportunity for clients to purchase a work if they’ve missed out through the gallery.
Buoyant sale activity set the scene leading into the sale of the Banksy’s and as with previous auctions containing Banksy works, both television and print media were in attendance. The original work on canvas Keep it Real in particular had been gifted plenty of presale publicity, with a sale price of a million dollars or more being suggested as a possible selling price. In the New Zealand art market, 'one million dollars' is a magic number, with only two works achieving this under the hammer: C.F. Goldie’s last painting A Noble Relic of a Noble Race, Wharekauri Tahuna Aged 102, Chieftain Of the Arawa Tribe for $1,175,000 and Colin McCahon’s Canoe Tainui for $1,350,000 which was sold in the Tim and Sheerah Francis Collection at A+O which was New Zealand’s highest grossing auction in 2016, achieving $5,500,000 under the hammer.
Keep it Real (Lot 27 ) dates from 2003, and had originally been gifted to the original vendor by the artist, and carried the all important Pest Control authentication. The work comprises a spray painted stencil on canvas measuring 30 x 30 cm and framed behind Perspex. The use of the stencil which is a fundamental part of street art practice allows the artist to quickly and efficiently spray the image they want under the cover of darkness and also allows for replication of the image. Keep it Real is a well known Banksy image, which has been stencilled on a number of different mediums and locations over the years, including a red canvas, a white canvas and a found piece of metal. Some of these images have found their way through the international auction rooms. Most recently in 2019 another work also titled Keep it Real and measuring 5cm higher than this work went through Sotheby’s in London and achieved 270,000 pounds hammer, the equivalent of $530,000 NZD. Taking into consideration the growth of the Banksy market in two years, the IAC estimate of $600,000-$1,000,000 was reasonable. Four phone bidders were registered for the lot, with an opening bid of $500,000 quickly superseded by a bid of $600,000 then rapid fire bidding after that. Auctioneer Richard Thomson tried to set the bidding increments at $50,000 but the number of bidders, calling out random amounts made this difficult. The magic million dollar mark was soon hit and with no sign of slowing and some confusion over where the bids were at, due to the high numbers being called - NZ auctioneers aren’t used to bidding in the millions!. The bidding continued all the way to $1,415,000 when it looked like it was all over. Richard Thompson had the gavel up and was in the middle of giving a celebratory speech about the record-breaking result when another $10,000 was bid resulting in a further tussle between the phone bidders until the hammer fell at $1,455,000 setting a record for both the highest price paid, and for a living artist at auction in New Zealand.
The following three screenprints Choose Your Weapon (Soft Yellow) (Lot 28 ), Morons (Lot 29 ) and Chocolate Donuts (Lot 30 ) all went for more than twice the low end estimate, Soup Can (Original) (Lot 31 ) came in at $85,000 just over low estimate but it was the fourth time the image has been offered since June last year at IAC and Gangsta Rat (Lot 32 ) the least well known image of those on offer made $60,000. See below for a full list of Banksy estimates via prices realised. The six Banksy images sold for $2,353,000 hammer which would be a fantastic result for a top level New Zealand art auction, so to realise that amount for six works, five of which are prints is unprecedented in New Zealand. What is even more amazing is that four works including the original stencil stayed in New Zealand and only two went offshore.
Despite a large group of clients exiting the auction rooms after the Banksy lots, there were still enough people present to continue the strong results, although as at Webb’s the previous night, the pace was slow. At 8.30pm, 1.5 hours after the start of the auction, we were at lot 40 and the sale still had 53 lots to go. Although the internet bidding didn’t seem to be quite as prevalent at IAC as at the other two auction houses, there was enough activity to slow the rate of sales.
A further highlight of the night was the sale of experimental German artist Sigmar Polke whose watercolour After Albrecht Durer Prayerbook, 1986 (Lot 34 ) sold to a New Zealander in the room. The sale of a highly academic and expensive international work like this in New Zealand wouldn’t have been conceivable in recent years so for it to achieve a price $20,000 over the estimate of $150,000 is certainly worth a mention.
The final word about the auction must go to the wonderful painting by Robyn Kahukiwa, Family Group 1973 (Lot 54 ). Another painting by this senior Maori artist has been one of the greatest hits of the Toi Tu Toi Ora exhibition, opening the eyes of the public to this important painter who has flown under the radar of late. Bidding commenced at the low estimate of $25,000 against an absentee bid held by the auctioneer and continued to climb to $53,000, but an extra $1,000 bid secured the painting and it sold for $54,000, setting a record for the artist.
Although the sale was dominated by Banksy, there were some excellent results achieved for New Zealand artists as well. With post sales included the auction realised $4,384,000 hammer price, which is the highest total for a mixed vendor auction in New Zealand. The clearance rate was 87% by lot and 148% by value.
Banksy Results:
Keep it Real: Estimate $600,000-$1,000,000 Realised $1,455,000
Weapon of Choice (Soft Yellow): Estimate $150,000-$250,000 Realised $390,000
Morons: Estimate $100,000-$150,000 Realised $213,000
Chocolate Donuts: Estimate $70,000-$100,000 Realised $150,000
Soup Can (Original): Estimate $80,000-$120,000 Realised $85,000
Gangsta Rat: Estimate $40,000-$60,000 Realised $60,000
All prices quoted are hammer price in $NZ unless otherwise stated.
