Artist's moving picture show

Photo / Paul Estcourt

Auckland artist Gavin Hurley's "School Portrait" is among $50 million of art being moved from the James Wallace Collection into the Pah Homestead this week.

Businessman and collector Mr Wallace is shifting 4000 works from his crowded Rannoch home in Epsom. An invite-only exhibition opened yesterday, aiming to raise money to turn the homestead into a gallery.

The Auckland City Council acquired the homestead in Monte Cecilia Park, Hillsborough, in a dilapidated state, and has been restoring it. It was built between 1877 and 1879 for businessman James Williamson.

Mr Wallace said he had been looking for several years for a permanent home for the collection of works he had collected since the 1960s.

The collection will continue to be managed by the James Wallace Arts Trust, which owns big collections of several top artists, including Toss Woollaston and Philip Trusttum.

Mayor John Banks said the collection was "a truly magnificent gift to Auckland and arguably the biggest since Sir John Logan Campbell gave Cornwall Park".