A mysterious collection of high-quality painted canvases, drawings and etchings were dropped off at the Waipuna Hospice recently and, after consultation with the Tauranga Art Gallery, it turns out they are works by past Elam School of Fine Arts graduates Paul Ward, Paul Barnett and Peter Millman.
It's a mystery as to why the work was left at the hospice shop, but not as to their quality.
"The 1980s in New Zealand was a time of change - we were finding ourselves as a country, taking a stance over nuclear testing and flexing our muscles against the big fish" says Sonya Korohina who was once the public programmes manager at Elam and is now a teacher at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.
"Life as a student at Elam was no different and the artworks for auction capture a moment in time when anything was possible. The large-scale paintings are quite something.
"The students would have been learning under painting greats such as Don Binney and Robert Ellis and in the instance of Peter Millman [now Peter Brierley-Millman] has gone on to much success with sculptures in major collections here and overseas. This is an exciting find."
