Saleroom: Vendors learn to take the money and run

BY DON MILNE

What does it say about the art market when a good proportion of the works on offer at auction are passed in? Or sold subject to the vendor's agreement, meaning they have not met the reserve (minimum) price?

One explanation could be that the market is weak, but that hardly seems likely with Auckland auction houses still hitting around the million-dollar mark for major sales.

Another could be that vendors' expectations are too high, raised by reports of outstanding works achieving outstanding prices. And a third may be that auctioneers advise vendors to set unrealistically high reserves, in an effort to attract business in the highly competitive Auckland market.

Be that as it may, many of those works that are passed in on the night are subsequently sold by agreement, with vendors prepared to take the money on offer and run.

The International Art Centre's sale this month, for instance, saw perhaps a fifth of the works passed in or "sold subject".

Most have now been sold, after negotiation.

A portrait of Rahapa Hinetapu by Goldie, for instance, reached only $59,000 on the night, against an estimate of from $65,000 to $85,000. It sold later for $60,000. Similarly, two French landscapes by Sydney Lough Thompson (whose works are growing in popularity) were estimated to sell between $20,000 and $35,000.

Bidding reached $17,000 and $18,000, but both were later sold for $20,000 each - buyer's premium of 10 per cent and GST on the premium (adding 11.25 per cent) not included.

At Webb's sale of works from the collection of John Perry, former director of the Rotorua Museum and Art Gallery, bidding reached only $11,000 for an early mountain scene by South Island painter Austin Deans (estimate $12,000 to $25,000). It sold afterwards at that price. But a landscape by Toss Woollaston, estimated at between $18,000 and $25,000, for which the same $11,000 was offered, did not sell.

It will be put up again, together with Woollaston's working drawing, at Webb's end-of-year auction next month.

Highlights of the month, which saw the first big sale in Dunbar Sloane's well-designed new rooms at 20 St Marks Rd, Remuera, included:

* A world record price for a Clarice Cliff "Liner" jug at Dunbar Sloane, at $47,000 (before premium and GST). The previous record, also held by Dunbar Sloane, was $41,000.

* A record price at auction for a painting by Bill Hammond - $95,000, again at Dunbar Sloane.

* $7500 at Cordy's for a fine Fijian yagona vessel, with excellent historical provenance; and, exceptionally, $3400 for a lime spatula from the Massim group in the Trobriand Islands - these usually sell for between $150 and $250.

* A record $11,500 at the International Art Centre for a Rita Angus-style marine scene by William James Reed, who taught Stanley Palmer and Ralph Hotere at the Dunedin School of Art.

* $36,000 for a tiny "gentleman's cabinet" by William Seuffert, at Dunbar Sloane.

Coming up: Cordy's last art and antiques sale for the year will be on Tuesday, December 11. Its next ethnic art sale is in March.

Dunbar Sloane has an Auckland affordable art sale of about 300 lots on the following Wednesday, at prices estimated from $100 to $3000.

Webb's last big art sale of the year will also be on Tuesday, December 11, followed by jewellery and decorative arts on December 12 and 13.

Among the 250-odd lots will be works by Goldie, Fomison, Hotere and McCahon.

The International Art Centre is collecting works for its first sale of the new year, which may be brought forward to February.