Three Goldie paintings from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's personal collection are changing hands. Photo / John Swannell
Three Goldie paintings from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's personal collection are changing hands. Photo / John Swannell
Three Goldie paintings from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's personal collection are changing hands - with one fetching nearly $1 million at an auction last night.
Tribal Troubles, painted by prominent New Zealand artist Charles Goldie in 1940, sold for $922,000, the highest price for a Goldie painting since a $1.377msale in April 2016.
Tribal Troubles is a portrait of Tamati Pehiriri, a chief of the Rarawa tribe.
Another Goldie, Te Hei, fell short of the reserve but sold today for $595,000.
The third Goldie from the Dame Kiri collection, Wharekauri Tahuna, is under negotiation after earlier estimates suggested it could bring up to $1m.
International Art Centre director Richard Thomson said there had been huge interest in the Dame Kiri collection, which also featured several Australian masterpieces and works by prominent New Zealand artists Peter McIntyre and Frances Hodgkins.
"We had quite a staggering interest in Dame Kiri's collection but that is no surprise given the provenance it had," he said.
Tribal Troubles, the oil-on-canvas portrait of Tamati Pehiriri, was signed and dated by Charles Fredrick Goldie in 1940. Image / Supplied
"Dame Kiri had a very fine appreciation of art but now wants her collection to be appreciated by others the way she has appreciated it."
The Goldie paintings had been on permanent loan for the past 25 years to the Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki.
Thomson said the auction was probably the only time three quality works by Goldie had been offered at the same time.
About $3.5m worth of art changed hands thanks to the auction, with several works under negotiation today.
A 1985 painting, Pulpit Rock with Fire and Black Cockatoo, by Australian artist Arthur Boyd, sold for $285,000 after an earlier estimate suggested it could bring between $160,000 and $230,000.
Blue Barges, a 1941 watercolour by Hodgkins, sold for $40,000.
An oil painting by McIntyre, depicting Victoria Cross winner Major General Sir Bernard Freyberg, sold for $124,000.
Its estimated value was between $60,000 and $80,000.
A painting by Karl Maughan, Rhododendron & Ponga, sold for $98,000.
It was expected to sell for between $25,000 and $45,000.
