Art auctions

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 18

Art auctions

Wellington reporter The upward spiral' in prices for New Zealand paintings was given even greater impetus at two Auckland auctions recently. Webbs held a sale of mainly post-1945 art. Many of the artists in this period are still finding their niche in the collectors’ affections so demand can be up and down from sale to sale. This was the best auction of modern art ever held in this country. The other auction at McArthurs could be considered the finest catalogue of nineteenth and early twentieth century art assembled. Prices simply went through the roof.

Major artists were represented by some of their best works, so the record $lOO,OOO paid for the medium-sized Nicholas Chevalier watercolour of Cook Strait came as no great surprise, nor did the $58,000 paid for the small Chevalier watercolour of Akaroa.

The surprise lay in the strength of demand for some of the important but lesser painters. For example, a fine John Weeks oil of Parnell made $17,500 —- at least three times higher than any of ; his works have before. ! Sales of more than $lO,OOO were common- ■ place. The ' big Sydney Thompson oil of “Fishermen at Digue” fetched $47,000, the huge John Gibb oil of French Farm at Akaroa made $60,000, while the primitive Page

watercolour of the early Maori Wars made $30,000. It was corporations rather than private buyers that drove the market up. They were not just satisfied with the cream of the market; their hunger was so great that they bid frenziedly for almost anything. Astonishing prices were also paid at the Dunbars auction in Wellington last month. Three top Frances Hodgkins watercolours fetched $lOO,OOO, $95,000 and $65,000, with the first being a record auction price.

A fine oil painted in France by Sydney Thompson made $35,000 and a large John Gully watercolour of Milford Sound $45,000, while a medium C. D. Barraud watercolour realised $31,000.