Successful art auction

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 24

Successful art auction

PA Auckland Art works auctioned in Auckland recently fetched more than $650,000. A work called “Summer,” by Sir William Ernest Rey-nolds-Stephens, was bought by an English dealer for $225,000, a world record for a painting by that artist. The auction, by the Peter Webb Galleries, packed the ballroom of the SheratonAuckland Hotel.

Mr Peter Downey, a director of Peter Webb Gal-

leries, was breathing prices over the telephone to an English dealer who took part in the auction from London.

The dealer told Mr Downey when to bid on his behalf.

A nude, “The Delphic Oracle,” by John William Godward, sold for $87,500, a price which beat the previous record of $31,500 for a painting sold at auction in New Zealand. Asked if “Summer” had

been bought at a realistic price, Mr Downey said, “The upshot is that two competitive dealers bid against each other for it I think their profit margin would be pretty small in the end, but they have clients who want to buy it.” The previous New Zealand record was $31,000 for an oil on hardboard, “Taradale, Hawke’s Bay,” by Rita Angus, sold at auction in Auckland on November 6, 1980.