Hammond high on a buoyant market

By DON MILNE

So the $200,000 auction mark for a work by a living New Zealand artist has been breached - well, only just - and by dint of the Government's GST grab on the 10 per cent premium that buyers pay at auction.

Even at $198,000 ($180,000 bid, plus $18,000 premium, plus GST), the price paid at Dunbar Sloane's in Auckland last week for Containers, a fine work by Lyttelton artist Bill Hammond, was worth celebrating.

Sydney dealer Martin Brown was obviously pleased with his purchase, which he will hang in a gallery he is opening in Auckland later this year.

The price eclipsed the auction record set by Peter Webb Galleries last December when another large work by Hammond, Living Large 7, was knocked down for $160,000 ($178,000, with premium and GST).

Since opening in Auckland a couple of years ago, Wellington-based Dunbar Sloane has acquired something of a reputation for pulling big prices out of the hat.

While his sales may not have the overall quality of those at Webb's or the International Art Centre, he always seems to find at least one big work that hits the headlines and causes angry mutterings among his rivals.

While it was the Hammond that dominated last week, the sale had plenty to offer buyers with shallower pockets than the Sydney dealer.

Of the 174 works on sale, two were passed in, and close to 50 were sold "subject to vendor's approval". Many of those, inevitably, would be sold later as sellers adjusted their targets.

The bulk of the works sold (final or subject) on the night went for less than $10,000, with just 15 climbing over that mark.

They included works by Grahame Sydney ($33,000), John Gully ($35,000, subject), Sydney Lough Thompson ($37,000, subject), Frances Hodgkins ($32,000, subject), and J.B.C. Hoyte ($35,600).

At the other end of the scale, just over a fifth of the works sold for $500 or less, with nearly a third going for between $500 and $1000. Something like two-thirds sold for under $2000.

Good works by good (or popular) artists will always sell well. On today's rising market, they can be regarded as investments (although popularity can wax or wane).

For those who do not regard their purchases as an investment (and perhaps even for those who do), the rules continue to be: buy what you genuinely like, and buy within your budget.

That said, those who get the auction bug know there are times when the buying frenzy takes hold and one pays far more for a work than planned.

Lie back, relax and enjoy the work; the next bargain may balance it out. Or so we convince ourselves.

Coming up: Webb's in Newmarket have an interesting affordable art sale, including a big photography section - an area this house is increasingly fostering - tomorrow night. Its next major art sale is on June 25. Also this week, Dunbar Sloane in Wellington has an investment art auction on Wednesday, followed by affordable art on Thursday afternoon and a good collection of New Zealand and international pottery, a field much neglected by Auckland collectors, that night.

The latter includes some 60 lots from the personal collection of one of New Zealand's national treasures, Czech-born Mirek Smisek.

Cordy's next art and antiques sale on Great South Rd is on May 21.

The International Art Centre has a sale planned for Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, on July 25.