New Zealand Art Auction Sale Reviews

With art auctions in both Wellington and Auckland in the last couple of weeks being the ''last cab off the rank'' could prove to be a little problematic, but just as I thought the secondary market was running out of steam after a tsunami of auctions, I had to think again

On 1 December Art + Object offered the almost full market an end of year sale of Important Paintings & Contemporary Art Including Works from the Collection of Celia Dunlop, comprising 100 lots of 20th and 21st century New Zealand Art.

Now that the new team of fine art specialists are firmly bedded in at the Parnell rooms of Mossgreen-Webb's, to close the year, their final sale was held over two nights on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th November.

I will never forget buying my first ever painting by Charles F, Goldie in 1979 from an auction house in the Hawke's Bay. It was a late period 1940 oil on canvas of Rahapa of Ohinemutu for the all-out sum of $10,000.

It was all the money we could, as an arts community in the then wild west town of Rotorua, come up with to buy a ''real'' Goldie painting for the new Rotorua Art Gallery that was struggling to come to grips with the notion of a ''permanent collection''

After the large magnitude 7.8 earthquake which occurred early on Monday morning of 14 November in the South Island of New Zealand, the devastation and upset caused by what became known as the Kaikoura earth shake precipitated the partial shutdown of the country's capital, Wellington, for a short time while buildings and infrastructure were checked by the authorities. It also resulted in Dunbar Sloane's major end of year ''big bang'' two day Fine & Applied Art Auction being put back by six days to 22 and 23 November 2016.

Back in the old days the Wellington based auction house, Dunbar Sloane used to term ''it'' Affordable Art while Webb's often referred to ''it'' as A2 Art, then along comes Art + Object and calls ''it'' New Collectors Art.

The ''it'' I am referring to, is all of the above. It is the art that is more affordable; it is the second tier, the second rung on the art ladder of fame. It is the more accessible art for those commencing collections and seasoned collectors wanting to add strength and diversity to already established collections. These sales are popular with the punters as they are less of a ''spectator sport'' than the ''big ticket item'' sales where many of those present like to be seen and heard

The A2 Art sale, the second art sale under the new Mossgreen-Webb's banner got off to a good start in Auckland on Wednesday 21st of September with the first few lots in the 158 lot catalogue selling well, despite some early technological problems. They were quickly fixed, but the sale had few real highlights until a 1964 work Mother and Child (lot 37) by Jan Nigro came up for auction. It sold well above the top estimate of $3,000, and after spirited bidding it was finally knocked down for $4,750

The media coverage was extensive as a very private, life-long art collection assembled by the husband and wife team of Tim and Sherrah Francis was made public for the first time over the last month or so.

Art + Object pulled out all the stops for this one and the extensive preparation by the auction house certainly bore fruit. The 3,000 catalogues had all sold out and a number of folk attending the auction had photocopies of the publication on which to record the action

A good crowd of around 200 people braved a lousy night in Auckland to be present at a red carpet affair, the first Important and Rare sale at the International Art Centre's new premises, 100 meters down the road from their old rooms in Parnell.

The new bespoke auction rooms worked well and the large crowd in attendance were eager to see the 110 lots of New Zealand Paintings go under the hammer. As one would expect the carefully curated sale went off with a bit of a bang with the first three lots all exceeding the top end of their estimates.

The new team from across the Tasman Sea have pulled out all the stops in a serious effort to save the Art Department at Webb's, once billed as New Zealand's premier auction house

For the first of the fine art sales to come out under the ''newly minted'' Mossgreen-Webb's brand, an extensive and expensive 132 page catalogue was produced for the 53 lots of New Zealand and International Fine Art to go under the hammer in their Parnell auction rooms on 11 August. A good crowd of around 75 people were in attendance with the Director of Art, Sophie Coupland, taking the rostrum to conduct the sale.

The 86 lot auction of Important Paintings and Contemporary Art at Art & Object's Abbey Street Auckland premises on Thursday 4th August broke a number New Zealand auction records.

A large format catalogue accompanied the auction with comprehensive and authoritative essays by the in-house team at A+O and leading scholars in the field

A good crowd braved Auckland's winter weather and along with the increasing number of phone bidders it was a hot night on the auction house floor

Art and Object held their New Collectors Art sale in Auckland on 1 June, at their Abbey Street rooms, in the shadow of the Auckland Art Fair. A good crowd of Aucklander's braved the cold to attend the sale to see 237 lots go under the hammer, and with a sell-through rate of around 100 lots per hour by auctioneer Ben Plumbly the sale was completed by around 9 p.m.

The International Art Centre changed the date of their Modern and Contemporary Art Auction as to not clash with the opening of Auckland's Art Fair...... the first for 3 years ...as a consequence we ''art-o-holics'' are having a small but tasty feeding frenzy

Cordy's April sale in Auckland featured a number of significant private collections coming onto the market at the same time. In all 889 lots went under the hammer, although the pre-auction sale highlight, Augustus Earle's wonderful small sketchbook study of an Albatross (lot 822) failed to reach the lower end of the pre sale estimate of $50,000, selling for $35,000 with a ''maiden bid''.

After a long 640 km drive overnight and into the following day I arrived in Wellington just in time to take a front row seat at the Dunbar Sloane Auction of the New Zealand Post Art Collection.

Eighteen mostly large format and big ticket items were being deaccessioned by a long established and powerful (but in decline) Government Department whose impressive headquarters was just a stone throw from the New Zealand capital city's only auction house, Dunbar Sloane, which was established in 1919.

Formed in 1964, John Cordy and Associates is now Auckland's oldest auction house. Initially formed by Peter Webb, Hamish Keith, Colin McCahon and Michael Draffin, it took the middle names of Colin (John) McCahon and Hamish (Cordy) Keith, and Cordy's as it is now known has held regular weekly sales and monthly art and antique sales since I don't know when.

Being the last cab off the rank can have its disadvantages, but it certainly did not affect the well oiled team at Art & Object. All of Aucklands major auction houses had conducted their sales in the days previous to A&O's Important Paintings & Contemporary Art auction on 7 April.

A good crowd of around 100 people attended a finely honed 76 lot auction covering a series of masterworks from the last 60 years or so, and with absentee bids, telephone bidders and the internet all playing key roles in the final outcome of important works, there was never a dull moment.

The extensive media coverage prior to last nights auction (6 April, 2016) at the International Art Centre's Important and Rare 130 lot auction meant a good crowd was assured. The 200 seats were all occupied and a large crowd of people were jostling for standing space, with a heavy media presence at the rear of the room. The assembled multitudes had come to witness Charles Frederick Goldie's last dated painting go under the hammer. In New Zealand, the  ''big ticket'' art auction is becoming a spectator sport.

A game of rugby football as often referred to as ''a game of two halves'', and this term could have been applied to Webb's first and final  art auction for 2016 held in Auckland on 5 April, before new management takes over. Titled the ''Paramount Series'', the auction was in two sections referred to in the catalogue as Part One and Part Two. The logic employed was difficult to fathom as the two parts were rather inconsistent, but I can only assume it was some kind of heavyweight/lightweight division.

Part One consisted of 35 works of which 14 sold on the night, four were subject to vendor approval and the balance (17) failed to attract any bids at all. Now these are not impressive results in anybody's book, but the results were standout in comparison to some of the results achieved in a number of their art sales in the later part of 2015.

Bowerbank & Ninow have just held their second Auckland auction, this time an exclusively ''photographic sale'' and the results were certainly more pleasing than the after sale results of the first sale held in November last year.

This time round they had curated an uncompromising 86 lot auction made up of 73 lots of New Zealand and International photography along with some ''historical'' photographic posters making up 13 lots that ''tail ended'' after the photographs went under the hammer. 

The gallery / auction house with its high profile road frontage in an old Bank building has become part of an important artistic hub of galleries and late night venues in what was once one of Auckland's most colourful streets commonly known as K. Road.