NZ buyer for $1m Gottfried Lindauer painting of Waimārama chief Harawira Te Mahikai

A Gottfried Lindauer painting of Ngāti Kahungunu Waimārama chief Harawira Te Mahikai from 1883 sold for over $1 million to a buyer from New Zealand this week and will be staying in the country for the foreseeable future.

A Gottfried Lindauer painting of Waimārama chief Harawira Te Mahikai sold for over $1 million to a buyer from New Zealand and will be staying in the country for the foreseeable future, according to the director of the auction house that sold it.

According to records kept by the National Library of New Zealand, Harawira Te Mahikai was of Ngāti Kahungunu iwi and was the last tattooed chief of Waimārama when he died in 1886.

The portrait of Harawira Te Mahikai was painted in 1883 by Lindauer, a New Zealand artist from Bohemia, who became famous for his portraits of Māori people. The painting was understood to have been gifted to Lindauer’s son Hector on his 21st birthday.

The portrait had been sold and kept in a private collection in Auckland until it was sold at auction through the International Art Centre on Thursday.

Richard Thomson, the director of the International Art Centre, said the final bid under the hammer was $840,000 and the final sale price was $1,009,008 after GST.

The estimated price before the auction was $550,000 to $850,000.

“It was a good result for sure, a record price for Lindauer,” Thomson said.

According to the International Art Centre, the previous record price for a Lindauer painting was $307,425 after GST for the 1888 painting Girl with Gourd, sold at the International Art Centre last August.

Thomson said there were about half a dozen people bidding for the piece.

Thomson could not reveal the identity of the buyer, but he was able to confirm they were from New Zealand and the painting would stay in the country.

Bayden Barber, Ngāti Kahungunu chairman and great-great-great-grandson of Te Mahikai, said he was not surprised at all that the painting sold for over the estimate, given its provenance and quality.

Barber said he was “ecstatic” it was going to stay in New Zealand.

He said that while Ngāti Kahungunu was not able to put up funds to bid on the portrait due to Cyclone Gabrielle and other costs, they hoped the buyer would be open to forming a relationship with them due to their connection to Te Mahikai as descendants.

“We are hoping to make contact if we can.”

Australian art dealer Denis Savill, who originally hails from Canterbury, was the underbidder (the second-highest bidder) and had intended to gift the portrait “to New Zealand” if he won the auction.

Savill said you usually could not take a painting like the Lindauer portrait out of New Zealand long-term without permission from the Government.

“You can get permission to take it out for maybe eight years on the condition you will return it. To actually get permission to take it out is excessively hard, you’ve got to go to the highest level in the country,” Savill said.