Art Market Report: International Art Centre, March 2026
The International Art Centre's March 2026 auction achieved excellent results despite economic uncertainty from the Iran war and dwindling NZ oil supplies. Top price went to a large painting of New Zealand birds by Don Binney at $320,000. Highlights included a rare early Colin McCahon gouache and a Rita Angus watercolour both fresh to the market. International works by Léger, (Lot 35 ) Nicholson, and Flanagan performed solidly. The sale cleared 81% for a total of $2,909,000 (including BP).
The green shoots that had recently appeared in the NZ economy have flattened after uncertainty swirls around the ongoing and long-term potential repercussions of the war in Iran. With NZ’s stored oil supplies set to run out in seven weeks, it was timely for the auction houses to hold their major sales now and not in a month’s time, when the outlook could be more dire.
With a slightly smaller crowd in attendance to start the night at International Art Centre, a few early lots sold well above their estimates to quell any nerves about the market. An enticingly smooth and tactile granite sculpture by John Edgar saw solid bidding from the outset. The Lens pieces are the most desirable from the artist’s oeuvre and this particular piece (Lot 5 ) had beautiful veins throughout the stone which added to its appeal. It sold at the top estimate of $12,000 to an online bidder.
A generously proportioned drawing by Don Binney was attractively estimated at just $15,000 - $20,000 and appealed to multiple bidders who could sense a potential bargain. This top-quality drawing, Kaka, Great Barrier (Lot 3 ) shows the artist’s consummate mastery of the charcoal medium, was well contested to sell for $51,000 under the hammer which was a reasonable price for such a good example.
Recent sale room favourites Michael Parekowhai and Fiona Pardington have taken a dip in popularity in the auction room after a streak of very strong sales. Notably, Michael Parekowhai’s editioned wall sculpture Rainbow Servant Dreaming (Lot 18 ) in the smaller size had previously sold for $33,000 and $41,000 as recently November 2025. In this sale, the bid was referred at $25,000 and sold at that the following day.
Fiona Pardington is New Zealand’s representative for the Venice Biennale later this year and it’s often thought that inclusion in a prestigious international event will drive sales across the market. The two examples in the IAC sale dated from 2021 so were not the desirable Huia subject, even so the subdued interest was surprising. An image of a kiwi, Tao Tao, Canterbury Museum, 2021 (Lot 19 ) sold under the estimate at $22,000 and Kaka Nestor Meridionals (Lot 20 ), which is especially striking in a large format was passed in against a low estimate of $25,000. Post sale results show the photograph sold for $15,000 the following day.
As always, as in any market, fresh and rare works continue to perform well and two paintings from an Auckland estate were a welcome inclusion in the auction.
A small gouache landscape by Colin McCahon dating from 1953, is an academically interesting work, stylistically having more in common with his early paintings from the 1930s rather than the abstraction he was starting to experiment with in the 1950s. Cottage from above Chch and of Lyttleton Tunnel (Lot 25 ) had not been on the market before and was unregistered on the McCahon database so was not a known work. Multiple bidders on the phone, in the room and online started the bidding at $36,000, well above the low estimate of $30,000, before a room buyer secured the work at $50,000.
From the same estate came a charming and rare watercolour by Rita Angus. Presenting another view of the Christchurch area, this time around the other side of Banks Peninsula, Seaside Baches (Lot 26 ), this highly detailed watercolour shows the artist’s exceptional skill handling the medium. A low start at $55,000 saw the painting away in $5,000 rises, selling for $110,000 to the internet, a touch over the low estimate.
Notable in this sale was the inclusion of international works, rarely seen on the New Zealand market. Three works by Fernand Leger, Ben Nicholson and Barry Flanagan all came with Waddington Galleries, London provenance. Consigned from an Auckland collection, the Leger was small but contained all the motifs a buyer would wish to see including the female form with cascading hair and dancing abstract forms. For international buyers, it can be risky purchasing sight unseen, and this may explain why the interest in the work was local, when it sold subject in the room for $175,000 to an Auckland dealer.
There was no such hesitation for the Barry Flanagan Small Thinker on Rock (Lot 37 ) which far exceeded its top estimate to hammer $100,000 and the small but beautifully executed work Rhodes (Lot 36 ) by Ben Nicholson had interest from a couple of parties and sold online at $25,000, right on reserve.
An exceptional watercolour by Australian Albert Namatjira, (Lot 51 ) held in the same family collection since new, was as fresh as the day it was painted and the ability the artist had to convey the Australian landscape with luminosity was on show here. Namatjira has been selling very well in the Australian market, so it was no surprise that the work went over reserve to realise $38,000.
There was an interesting turn in the Goldie market at the sale demonstrated by the outcomes of the three works consigned into this sale. The classic portrait of Te Hau – Takiri Wharepapa (Lot 32 ), carried a very reasonable estimate of $400,000 was sold subject at $320,000 on the night. A couple of years ago during the Covid boom times, this would have easily made $500,000. By comparison, two highly academic works, both dating from the artist’s time as an art student, sold successfully. The room purchaser of Still Life (With Carved Bowl) (Lot 31 ) topped an absentee bid from an institution to win the lot at $90,000.
The owners of two Banksy prints may have wished they’d ridden the wave back in 2021, when the prices for his works were sky high, supported by both national and international buyers. Between 2021 and 2022, IAC transacted numerous prints, owned by Kiwis who had purchased them while on their OE in the early 2000s and these achieved exceptional prices. In this sale, both examples, Girl with Balloon (Lot 39 ) and Love Rat (Lot 40 ) were passed without a bid. A far cry from the frenzied bidding a few years earlier, when the demand was unprecedented. A quick scan of the international auction prices shows that demand has slowed there too.
Top price in the sale went to Don Binney’s Waitangiroto (Lot 30 ) painted in 2006 shortly before the artist died 2012. Returning to a theme that was a constant in his career, these later bird paintings always tend to sell well at International Art Centre, and this work was contested by both the phone and the floor to hammer down at $320,000.
The later section of the sale was deftly delt with, most paintings here finding homes and some very strong results. All three paintings by Nigel Brown sold very well, especially Destruction of the Endurance (Lot 64 ), a work created after Brown was the ‘Artist to Antarctica’ in 1998. It realized $18,000 from a $6,000 reserve.
Another interesting work was a beautifully executed watercolour by John Holmwood, which sat nicely near the Rita Angus in the viewing, allowing fans of the medium to marvel at the quality of the draftsmanship of both works. Pacific Village (Lot 79 ) is an unusual subject for the artist who usually painted around Auckland, nonetheless, three parties were engaged in bidding and the work sold for $1700.
In uncertain times, this was an extremely impressive result for IAC, who have proven themselves to be somewhat immune to downward trends in the market. With an 81% clearance rate and a total of $2,909,000 (including BP) the market is still strong at their end of town.
**The C.F Goldie portrait was sold via post sale negotiation, and the total above includes this result.
*All prices quoted are hammer price and do not include buyer’s premium.
Article originally published on www.aasd.com.au and reproduced here with thanks