Kotare Painting Fails To Sell But Goldie Works Attract Interest

A highly sought after acrylic work of art of a native kotare, also called a sacred kingfisher, by an ardent environmentalist Don Binney, has failed to sell tonight after earlier predictions it could bring up to $1.2 million.

Another work of art by Charles Frederick Goldie, the renowned painter of Maori elders, was a chief of the Ngatimahuta tribe and was predicted to bring up to $1 million. It attracted much interest and sold for $941,000, including a buyer’s premium and GST at an auction of Important and Rare Art at the International Art Centre in Parnell, Auckland.

Binney’s Swoop of the Kotare was expected to bring between $800,000 and $1.2 million but was passed in when bidding reached $680,000. The passed in figure does not include a buyer’s premium and GST.

Swoop of the Kotare which is owned by a private collector, attracted much interest before the sale but there were only three bids before it was passed in.

Auctioneer, Richard Thomson, said the painting was likely to sell within the next few days.

“Binney works of art are very fine works and are always well sought after. We don’t anticipate it will be for long before it is sold. The highest bidder will have the first opportunity to buy the painting but the price is still unknown.”

Kotare are among the best known New Zealand birds and Binney is known mainly for his series of paintings of the birds which he began in 1964. He died in 2012 aged 72.

Binney’s 1983 signed and dated acrylic painting on offer tonight shows a kotare in full flight over Lake Wainamu, in the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland.

Goldie is the most revered and sought after painter of Maori elders in the country and his painting of the Maori chief attracted 12 bids before it sold. It was one of four Goldie paintings, two of which had traditional Goldie themes of Maori elders. The other with a Maori elder theme was Sophia, a principal tourist guide of the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana before they were destroyed by the Tarawera eruption in 1886. It sold for $670,000, including a buyer’s premium and GST.

The other two Goldies had religious themes and were completed when Goldie was studying art in France in the 1890s. One, an 1897 oil on canvas called The Blind Model, was passed in at $100,000 and the other, Study of The Crucifixion was passed in at $25,000.

“The Goldie works are so unusual because they did not follow his traditional theme of Maori elders and that makes them very appealing.

“Goldie is always very sought after and even his early works done when he was fine-tuning his artistic skills, are always in very high demand. We anticipate both his religious themed paintings will sell. Quite simply Goldie is a very fine artist and any work by him is in high demand.”

A rare and unusual piece of art by leading modern artist, Colin McCahon, failed to reach its reserve and was passed in.

Gillman House, a stained glass window, had never been offered for public sale until the auction. McCahon created the work 45 years ago for a Remuera doctor and his wife in 1979.

Timaru-born and Dunedin-educated Colin McCahon is considered to be one of the top modern artists in New Zealand art history and is said to art world.

His work mostly included landscape, configuration, abstract art and often painted text but he also created 12 stained glass windows under commission for be one of several artists whose work was credited with bringing modernism to the New Zealand private buyers for display in churches, houses, apartments and schools, and until now none has been offered for sale to the public.

Mr Thomson said McCahon’s stained glass “was beautiful. It was thought to have been destroyed when the house it was created for was demolished.

“It’s extremely rare and possibly unprecedented for a McCahon glass art work to come up for auction. It will sell. We have no doubt about that.”

McCahon died in 1987 at the relatively young age of 67.

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