Still as good as Goldie
5:00AM
Thursday April 03, 2008
By Don Milne
A Summer's Day, Hori Pokai by Goldie sold for $454,000 last month.
The auctioneer's slogan "As good as Goldie" still holds its meaning. Works by New Zealand's most recognised artist, Charles Frederick Goldie, hit the high spots at recent auctions, with the International Art Centre achieving a spectacular $400,000 for a portrait of Hori Pokai, on the market for the first time since 1948.
Taking 13.5 per cent buyer's premium and GST into account, that amounts to $454,000 - a price that may well set a benchmark for the rest of the year.
Last year's highest price went to Webb's for Noughts and Crosses by Colin McCahon, which sold for $325,000 ($371,000, with premium and GST). This week, Webb's sold a smaller Goldie, from the Richard and Rhoda Potton colonial collection, for $160,000, and another in its sale next Monday could well hit the same mark.
The Potton sale, and the International Art Centre's offering just before Easter, proved that the market for colonial paintings remains strong.
A pair of Charles Blomfield oils of the Pink and White Terraces - a popular 19th century subject, until they were destroyed by the Tarawera eruption - went for $160,000 at the centre.
