Art Market Report: International Art Centre Important and Rare Auction - July 2025
Early lots in the sale showed strong buyer engagement. A small pastel and acrylic drawing by Don Binney Swoop of the Kotare, possibly the original image for one of his most desirable prints sold well to make $46,000 which was $21,000 over low estimate. The low estimate was set at the value of what the prints have been making recently at auction, so the opportunity to acquire an original work for the same price enticed three bidders although it ended up selling for significantly more.
Two very good examples of paintings by Peter Siddell were sought after on the night. Both included his favoured subject of an imagined urban landscape set amongst Auckland’s volcanic mountains. Harbour a charming small work improved upon its presale reserve of $15,000 to sell for $18,000 to the room. A larger earlier work City with Towered Houses painted in 1974 would have signaled a transition in Siddell’s practice at the time, away from a more straightforward depiction of buildings within a landscape, to a more fantastical representation of the urban environment. Despite just slipping in under the low estimate for $146,000, the price is still the second highest for the artist at auction and a significant price for an early work.
A trio of rare works by New Zealand women artists provided a point of interest in the sale. Flora Scales, Rhona Haszard and Ngaio Marsh were modernists who lived predominately overseas during their lifetime, and all are represented by a scare offering of works on the secondary market.
A major research and cataloguing project has helped Flora Scales gain more notoriety in recent years and St Tropez, Farm Buildings and Harbour is a rare find. Although there were three bidders, they all needed a bit of cajoling from auctioneer Richard Thomson to get bidding which was surprising for such exquisite painting. The work realized $28,500 which was slightly over the low estimate of $25,000 and set a new record for the artist.
Primarily known as a superstar crime novelist and theatre director in London, Ngaio Marsh was also a founding member of The Group of artists in Christchurch in the 1920s. Only five paintings by the artist have been offered at auction and there are a handful scattered throughout public collections in New Zealand. Tyrolean Village fits neatly into Marsh’s known oeuvre, Late comers to the auction joined another set of bidders in the room, to compete for the work over low estimate, realizing $7,000.
Finally, Rhona Haszard’s A Sark Morning, had the potential to be a really interesting watercolour, but was unfortunately hampered by overall paper discoloration due to its age. It still sold for $4,000 to the book.
The cover lot Don Binney’s Fatbird II was an exciting inclusion in the auction; it was a fresh to the market painting from the artist’s widely considered best period (early 60s-early 70s) and featured appealing native birds. In Binney’s paintings, not all birds are created equal and the market shows a definite preference for the more popular native birds – a wood pigeon will always be more desirable than a takahe for example. Starting low at $400,000, the bids in the room moved up to reserve at $500,000 before the phone came in at $525,000. A couple more bids and the lot was hammered at $545,000 putting it amongst the top prices at auction for the artist.
A large-scale tapestry by artist Roger Mortimer was the big surprise in this sale. . Alongside his painting practice he also creates Jacquard weaving which is atypical for a painter in New Zealand. I would have thought that Houhora 2 would have been a tough sell. It’s large (170 x 180cm) and not being a ‘typical’ painting, there is often less engagement for works such as this. I was happy to be proven wrong though when four active bidders competed strongly to a sale price of $18,000 against a low estimate of $10,000, a good price for such complex and skillful work.
Of the three paintings by C.F Goldie, one was sold under the hammer on auction night. A diminutive portrait of one of the artist’s favoured subjects, a Maori guide called Kapi Kapi went for $420,000. It had previously been sold at IAC in 2014 for $190,000.
Of the other two works, Kamaka te Matehaere was subject at $450,000 which felt light compared to recent sales of comparable works which have easily sold for $500,000 plus. An earlier academic portrait from Goldie’s time in Paris as a student titled The Blind Model was passed with no bid.
The sale total shortly after the sale closed was $2,019,550 and the clearance rate by lot was 67% - a bright spot in a currently quiet art market in New Zealand.
Briar Williams | July 2025 - Excerpt of an article written for www.aasd.com.au