The Chateau Tongariro, closed in 2023, still contains historic chattels.
A nationally significant painting of the famed White Terraces is in an “active state of deterioration” in the shuttered Chateau Tongariro - and Government has ruled out paying to save it.
A $100,000 proposal to protect heritage items abandoned in the main hotel building was vetoed last December, according to documents obtained under the Official Information Act.
Chateau Tongariro, built in 1929, closed permanently last February when Malaysia-based hotelier Kah NZ abandoned its lease of the site from the Department of Conservation, citing concerns about seismic risk. It was recently revealed the empty hotel would cost taxpayers $2.2 million in maintenance, operating, compliance and reporting costs in the current financial year.
Meanwhile, DoC continues to battle for the removal of abandoned chattels, including a 2.1m by 2.7m oil of the White Terraces. The work is believed to be at least 135-years-old and was painted by German artist Carl Kahler, best known for his cat portraits - in 2015, his most most famous painting, “My Wife’s Lovers” (featuring 42 angora cats) sold for $1.3m at Sotheby’s, New York).
Documents released to the Herald show that, since the Chateau’s closure, a section of Kahler’s White Terraces painting has drooped by three-quarters of a centimetre, potentially worsening cracks and causing paint to flake. The sagging has been blamed on cooler temperatures and lack of air circulation in the shuttered building.
The painting was among a number of historic items left at the Chateau. Others included an antique movie projector, barometer, wooden sideboard, two wardrobes and chandeliers and other fittings, plus a tourism poster donated by Sir Peter Jackson, a painting of the Chateau by an unknown artist, and a work by World War II artist Peter McIntyre (“Evening on the Whakapapa”).
A briefing on abandoned buildings, presented to the Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka in December, recommended spending approximately $100,000 to “manage these heritage assets while keeping them located within the main Chateau building”.
“Following the decision not to incur costs to protect heritage items in the Chateau, DoC has not commissioned any protection work,” Mike Tully, DoC’s deputy director-general organisation support said this week.
Expert advice provided to DoC about the White Terraces painting suggested consolidating the lifting paint and protecting the surface from further damage, and then either leaving the work on the wall or unframing and crating it for storage.
Kah NZ was advised last April that the painting’s condition was deteriorating. In June, DoC sent a letter reiterating the empty building was “not a good place” to keep the artwork and other chattels: “This period of grace needs to come to an end. DoC has no obligation to KNZ to keep the heating on and DoC cannot indefinitely store the KNZ chattels in the Chateau buildings.”
When contacted this week, Kevin Peeris, senior vice-president commercial for the former lessee’s parent company, Bayview International, said it had always been the company’s intention to provide a new hotel operator with an option to purchase the White Terraces painting, which would allow it to remain at the Chateau.
“However, with no new operator confirmed thus far, we have just started exploring other options including selling the artwork. Our preference is for the artwork to remain within the hotel, and this has been communicated to DoC.”
A report prepared by a DoC staffer with a Masters of Museum and Heritage Practice describes the painting as “worn and declining”.
“The work is in a state of active deterioration. The cracking and flaking will continue to be exacerbated by the drooping of the work . . . Object is currently not stored in controlled climate and fluctuating humidity and temperature is having an adverse effect . . . damage is not irreparable, however the condition can be expected to degrade further, should preventative conservation action not be taken.”
A November 2023 condition assessment summary, prepared by New Plymouth-based conservation studio HPFS Solutions, also describes the drooping canvas, along with cracked and flaking paint, varnish discolouration “and surface residue from food and fly spots”.
A significance assessment undertaken by the same company says while other artists (notably Charles Blomfield and John Hoyte) made copious pre-eruption paintings of the Pink and White Terraces, “what sets Kahler’s artwork apart, and consequently elevates its social status, is its prominent history at the Chateau Tongariro”.
An internal DoC email subsequently states: “In summary, its value is debated and is mostly in its scale. Possibly around $250k. What is clear is that most of its value comes from its association with the Chateau.”
That $250,000 figure appears to come from a guesstimate proffered by an Auckland art auctioneer in response to Herald questions last year. Art+Object’s Ben Plumbly - commenting as someone who had seen the painting in situ at the Chateau - said putting a price on it would be “utter guesswork”.
“A painting is worth as much as what someone is prepared to pay for it. And there is no precedent really, for this type of work appearing on the market. But if you compare it to, say, a Blomfield of which there are literally hundreds, it is irreplaceable. There is not another painting around like it. If you pushed me to come up with a number, and I stress this is just my opinion, I would have thought in the vicinity of $250,000.”
DoC had originally sought to safeguard the painting at Te Papa, but the national museum advised it did not have the capacity to store a work of that scale and, in August, confirmed it was not pursuing its purchase.
The famed Pink and White Terraces were destroyed in the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera. While it is unclear exactly when Kahler painted his rendition (reports indicate sometime between 1885-89) it has hung at the Chateau since at least 1977, when it featured in the background of a publicity photo shoot.
The painting was brought to New Zealand by an Invercargill art dealer who purchased it in Melbourne, where Kahler was well known for his Melbourne race day paintings and flamboyant, bohemian studio. The White Terraces painting was viewed by almost 1500 people when it went on display briefly at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery. Museum director Arthur Mackenzie was quoted at the time saying it lacked artistic merit: “People are most impressed by its size . . . it is no work of art.”
Kim Knight is an award-winning arts and lifestyle writer who has been with the New Zealand Herald since 2016.
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