Art Market Report: International Art Centre - August 2026
McCahon Sets the Pace as International Art Centre Starts a New Chapter in its 55 Year History
Richard Thomson's first sale as sole owner of International Art Centre brought subtle changes and familiar strengths. Colin McCahon's Tangi, Muriwai set a new record for a work on paper at $455,000, while brisk post-auction sales lifted the total to $2.6 million (incl. premium) and 72% sold by lot.
A highly desirable small bronze by Henry Moore Maquette for Reclining Figure achieved one of the top prices on the night selling for $260,000 (hammer) to an international phone bidder.
It was a busy auction week for the regular auction room attendees, with the Art + Object and International Art Centre auctions falling on consecutive nights, in the coldest winter week Auckland has seen in decades. This didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the bidders with a good crowd in attendance when the sale of Important and Rare Art commenced.
Long standing Director, Richard Thomson who has been at IAC since 1986 is now the full owner of the business after Fran Davies (daughter of the original owner Graham Chote) retired earlier this year. There have been a few gentle changes. IAC has always operated as a dealer gallery and auction house together, sharing the space out of a single building. Since the change of ownership, the auction room display has been modernized to give a more contemporary feel, as have the physical catalogues. The auction viewing area has now utilized one of the gallery spaces for the duration of the viewing and the IAC’s signature red carpet, which has graced the front entrance for decades has quietly been removed to reveal a concrete floor.
Any uncertainty clients may have felt about the physical changes, would be reassured by the contents of the catalogue which was a reassuringly familiar offering from IAC spanning 19th century historical watercolors, C.F Goldie, Peter McIntyre, Frances Hodgkins, contemporary artworks and some notable international offerings.
Prices for Robyn Kahukiwa are in the middle of an upwards reassessment with many paintings offered on the market far exceeding their estimates across all mediums. Soon, these baseline estimates will need to be lifted by the auction houses but while the market is resetting, some excellent results are being achieved. A haunting painting, Tangi (Lot 7 ), an evocative study of grief doubled its low estimate on the opening bid to open at $16,000 (low estimate was $8,000), to realise $18,000 hammer.
An interesting painting by Peter Siddell which combined two different images from his oeuvre, a traditional villa window with a peek to a rocky landscape (rather than his more typical urban view), Untitled (Lot 13 ) was well bid between the floor and the internet selling for $14,000 (the reserve was $6,000). This was the first purchase of the night for a bidder sitting quietly in the front row who went onto secure no less than seven other lots during the sale.
Ted Bullmore is a fascinating New Zealand artist who defies simple characterization. His most notable claim to fame is that Stanley Kubrick purchased two of his paintings and one was used in his film The Clockwork Orange, but this singular part his life should not be the most interesting thing about it His molded canvas paintings pushed the boundaries of contemporary New Zealand art at the time, none more so than the Icons series, exhibited at Barry Lett Galleries in 1978. Icon No. 17 (Lot 20 ) was in that exhibition and three other retrospectives showing the regard in which this compelling work was held. The rise and fall of the shaped canvas, with exquisite tonal modelling in the paint surface are mesmerizing and I found it hard to pull myself away from it in the viewing. Others felt the same and the work was strongly bid in the room by a couple of parties plus a phone bidder and the painting was contested to $16,000 above its top estimate.
The room got a bit of light relief when auctioneer Richard Thomson realized that Terry Stringer’s Our Home is our Childhood (Lot 31 ) was being bid in the room by a young boy, about 12 years old, on behalf of his father who was standing adjacent. He had to have his wits about him as the lot started with four absentee bids and then a couple of room bidders as well, not the easiest way bid for the first time at auction but he handled himself admirably, securing the lot for $36,000 against a low estimate of $25,000.
Moving into the higher value consignments of the evening, the results were mixed with works by Michael Illingworth’s A Tree I Know Near Matauri Bay (Lot 34 ) and Rita Angus’s Gold Range Pembroke (Lot 36 ), both selling on reserve at $75,000 and $80,000 respectively. It wasn’t quite so easy for the selection of works by Don Binney. Of the six on offer, two sold under the hammer, both at the lower price point of the selections. Above Karekare (Lot 46 ) a very appealing work on paper sold well to realise $85,000.
The four oil paintings including the cover lot Under the Hill of the Homestead (Lot 42 ) which was estimated at $1,200,000 didn’t have much interest on the night, all being passed in or sold subject. Considering the results for the eight Binney paintings on offer over the two nights of sales at Art + Object and IAC, it is clear the buyers are seeing the value proposition in good quality works at the lower end of the market and vendor expectations around the top end may need to be reset.
Two paintings by C.F Goldie both acquired from IAC exactly 10 years ago were consigned by that vendor, with estimates reflecting the purchase prices from 2016. At the time In Doubt, an Arawa Chieftainess Maramena Wiari (Lot 49 ) sold for $370,000 against a much lower end estimate of $250,000. In the 10-year gap, the Goldie market has gone up and then come back down a bit, but all things considered the low-end estimate was reasonable. I was therefore surprised to see the work sold subject at $300,000 to a bid from the floor, however it did sell quickly just after the sale at $390,000. The second work Untitled Portraiture Study (Lot 80 ) which was painted when Goldie was a student in Paris, was also knocked down subject but remains unsold.
There was no such hesitation for Colin McCahon’s Tangi, Muriwai (Lot 40 ) which was also on its 10-year auction rotation, last sold in 2015 for $180,000. This work had multiple parties compete in the room and online for the work. As with the McCahon paintings sold the previous night at A+O, this work saw a level of engagement which has generally been absent from the McCahon market of late. A final bid of $455,000 to an online bidder secured the work against the floor, to set a new record for a McCahon work on paper.
The last major sale at IAC saw some very interesting and rare to New Zealand, modern British pieces consigned from an Auckland family including a Ben Nicholson work on paper and a Ferdinand Leger painting both with Waddington Gallery, London provenance. Perhaps those works were a test for the market, before the family decided to release a few more items. IAC must have passed the test, as included in this sale were two small Henry Moore sculptures both carrying the same provenance from Waddington Gallery. The first sculpture, Maquette for Reclining Figure (Lot 54 ) represents the artist’s most well-known and highly recognisable figurative form. With interest coming from the UK, a couple of phone lines were connected and the sculpture realized $260,000, just over the low estimate. The second sculpture, Stringed Ball 1939 (Lot 55 ), had some damage to the string which would need to be repaired in London as noted in the catalogue. At this stage, the sculpture remains unsold.
At the end of the 99 lots, the results looked a bit quieter than usual for IAC who regularly clear 70% or more of their sale under the hammer. Although Richard Thomson assured the room that he had plenty of enquiries coming through to his phone while the auction was still running and he’d be busy the next day. The buyers certainly did turn out with at least 20 works sold after the auction and another $800,000 added to the sale total, bringing the numbers up to $2,609, 789 (including buyer’s premium) and 72% by lot in the following days. A very good result in our uncertain economic times.
Article originally produced by Australian Art Sales Digest (www.aasd.com.au) and reproduced here with thanks