New Zealand Art Auction Sale Reviews

The staff at Art + Object possibly felt a little worried when their auction of Important Paintings and Contemporary Art in Auckland on 24 November started a few minutes late. With traffic at a standstill on the major arterials due to stormy weather, there were only about 35 people in room at the commencement of the sale, a much lower number than usual. However A+O needn’t have been concerned as bidding was well covered via all the usual channels (room, phone, internet and absentee) and it was the debut outing for the Art + Object bidding app.

An enormous crowd of over 150 people packed into the Webb’s sale rooms on a balmy pre-summer’s night to attend two sales on the same night this week.  New Zealand fashion royalty, Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, of World organised 13 contemporary artists to donate works to be sold for the benefit of artists with disabilities through the charity IHC.  A huge amount of presale publicity guaranteed attendance by an extremely fashion forward and well turned out crowd which raised about $50,000. Once this section of the sale was over, much of the crowd dispersed to the back of the auction room and stayed on drinking wine and eating the gourmet chips and nuts, which possibly wasn’t the best decision as it made the room extremely noisy and hard to control for the staff.

Would you consider eight Banksy prints in one auction too much of a good thing? Well apparently not, according to the bidders at International Art Centre’s final Important and Rare auction in Auckland on November 17, where eight screenprints were offered this week, the largest number offered in a single sale in the South Pacific according to IAC director and auctioneer Richard Thompson. The selection of prints were consigned from various vendors in New Zealand with one exception from Sydney (the word’s got out across the Tasman of recent sales in NZ obviously!)

Considering the unbelievably successful auction results since Covid-19 hit our shores in March, I’ve decided to rethink all my economic predictions. I’m going to listen to what the analysts and those in the know have said about the likely dire state of the New Zealand economy and then expect the exact opposite to happen. At present the art market is the strongest and most consistent it’s been in years and it’s defying any sense that an economic crash is about to befall the country.

The Art + Object sale of Important Paintings and Contemporary Art took place in Auckland on September 8, the night after Webb’s and yet another amazing result was returned. Engaged bidders through phone, internet and absentee bidding contributed to its success across all genres and price points. It’s been a while since A+O have sold an art group collection and this catalogue included 15 lots from the 'Off The Hook' art group which had a very good selection of contemporary practitioners including three works by current auction room favourite Fiona Pardington.

The team at Webb’s must have felt heartened at the start of Monday night’s Works of Art Sale on 7 September in Auckland.  The presentation was top notch and they had a a secret weapon, one of the best paintings by Tony Fomison to come to auction. Its estimate was pitched well below market value and it carried that all-important 'single owner since new' provenance. More on how that transpired to come…

As International Art Centre’s (IAC) Important, Early and Rare auction of 11 August came to a close on Tuesday evening around 9.15pm, ‘breaking news’ alerts started to come through on mobile phones.  The Prime Minister and Minister of Health were due to make an announcement in the next few minutes and it was expected to be about community transmission of Covid-19.  Within 15 minutess, the entire landscape had changed, Auckland had four cases of community transmission and New Zealand’s largest city was going back into lockdown in 15 hours time with essential services only allowed to open.

IAC was unbelievably lucky. They had just finished a bumper sale which had sold over two million dollars worth of art.  Not so lucky are the other auction houses, Webb’s and Art + Object whose sales were due to take place next week with viewings were starting  the following day.

Art + Object did things a little differently to their Auckland counterparts during the Covid-19 lockdown period in New Zealand. While International Art Centre and Webb’s focussed on online art sales to keep the coffers full, Art + Object (A+O) seemed to drop off the radar but were working hard behind the scenes to transact private treaty sales on behalf of clients. When their viewing reopened at the beginning of level 2 restrictions, Managing Director Leigh Melville reported strong interest levels from buyers, and they were feeling optimistic for a good result from the sale.

Once again the social distancing seating regulations were being followed by A+O and there were about 45 clients present at the opening lot, with almost all of Auckland’s art consultants in attendance, bidding cards at the ready, attesting to the strength of the stock on offer.

Webb’s 'Works of Art' sale on 20 May was the second of three auctions in Auckland on consecutive nights making it a busy week for stalwart auction attendees like myself!  The auction catalogue was headlined by a small selection of works from the Tim and Helen Beaglehole Collection, akin to other notable single vendor collections of late, having been collected in Wellington in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Webb’s followed all the social distancing protocols as mandated by the government and chairs were set at a reasonable distance from one another. However they did manage to manoeuvre around the ‘no food to be served’ requirement by offering gourmet chips and nuts in single sealed packages, which was a welcome perk for the 30 or so clients in attendance but the rustling of chip packets being opened did give the commencement of the auction the feeling of a movie theatre.

From a cashflow perspective, the shutdown of New Zealand due to Covid-19 couldn’t have come at a worse time for the auction houses.  The main players were just days away from holding their first round of major sales for the year, when in late March the country was put in hiatus.  The major sales are the events which produce significant cashflow for auction businesses and when an important sale hasn’t been held since November the previous year, the squeeze is on.  As soon as the end of the level 3 and 4 lockdown was announced by the government, the auction houses grabbed the earliest available sale dates and International Art Centre (IAC) was the first cab off the rank this week.