Collection worth millions under the hammer today
A set of six paintings by Charles Goldie, one of New Zealand’s best-known painters, is auctioned today and is expected to net its Canterbury resident owners in excess of $5.5 million.
The oil paintings, all portraits of notable Māori figures, were completed in the first half of the 20th century. They were acquired over a number of years by well-known Christchurch philanthropist and art collector Neil “Grumpy” Graham, who died in 2015.
The sale is being handled by Auckland auction house Art and Object, and will start at 6.30pm with online bidding available. “Selling six paintings by one artist – from one collection, with a similar subject matter – is completely unprecedented in the New Zealand market,” said Ben Plumbly of Art and Object.
The Goldie paintings went on show in Auckland last week, and have attracted healthy interest according to Plumbly.
“It’s probably safe to say that he’s New Zealand’s best known painter. But I wouldn't expect the volume of bidders to be massively high,” he said. “Simply the price point is going to rule the vast majority of the public out.”
Although his company has estimated the value of the six paintings to be in the range $5.5 million to $8.4m, Plumbly wasn’t able to say how much he thinks they might sell for.
“Buyers at this end of the market tend to play their cards really close to the chest,” he said. “So I can't say that I’ve got any inclination of how it's going to go.”
There are no restrictions on who can buy the artworks, and given that the auction is online anyone in the world can bid on them. But the Protected Objects Act 1975 subjects items of national significance to an export licence, which can be withheld for reasons of cultural protection.
“It is highly likely that they will remain in this country,” Plumbly said of the paintings. “They very much feel like they belong here; there's no question about that.”
When Graham died in 2015 at the age of 71, the paintings passed to his three children – Dean, Greg and Tania.
Lincoln resident Dean, 58, remembers the paintings hanging in his father’s lounge. “He had the TV in the middle, and the Goldies on each side,” he said. “I remember watching Canterbury play rugby with him and his friends, and then at half-time we’d get up and have a look at the pictures and talk about them.”
Unable to display the Goldies safely in their own homes, Graham’s children put the inherited paintings into storage. But recently they realised that art isn’t for hiding away.
“We decided that someone needs to enjoy them,” Dean said of the decision to sell.
There is no stipulation that the paintings need to be sold as a set, and Plumbly thinks that the price makes that unlikely. But Dean hopes that at least some of them will go together. “They need to be seen as a part of New Zealand history, and especially the North Island tribes,” he said. “And it’s poignant if someone can show them and be proud, as he did, putting them all in a row.”
Dean doesn’t have any specific plans for the proceeds from the sale. “It’s got nothing to do with the money for us, because we don't need the money,” he said.
But he does have a track record of philanthropic acts in his community, where he has paid for strangers’ grocery purchases. He has also supported the Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland, and the I Am Hope mental health charity among others.
Dean intends to use at least some of the income to allow him to keep supporting good causes, and performing his characteristic random acts of kindness to strangers. “Paying it forward is important to me,” he said.
He and his family will be taking a trip to Auckland to view the Goldies one last time. “We’re going to have a wee sentimental moment, and think about Dad and think about his lounge, and how he loved them.”