Jorgy's art keeps legend alive

A self-portrait of one of New Zealand's most notorious killers is up for auction this month.

Ron Jorgensen completed the 40cm by 30cm oil-on-board work in 1964, his first year of a life sentence for the Bassett Rd machinegun murders.

The painting is being auctioned at the International Art Centre in Auckland on July 28.

The owner, who wants to remain anonymous, bought it from the same dealers in 2005 for almost $10,000, eight times the estimate.

The estimate this month is $5000-$10,000 but centre director Richard Thomson said it was hard to a put a price on it. "I would say it would be bought for the artist's infamous involvement in that crime rather than the technical skill of a high-quality artist."

Thomson said the portrait was nothing special artistically, especially when compared to the Goldies and McCahons in the auction. "But it's an opportunity for someone to buy an amazing piece of history. It's quite rare and unusual."

Jorgensen became infamous when he and John Frederick Gillies shot dead two rival bootleg booze dealers in Remuera in December 1963.

The murders created a huge stir, with the newspaper headline "Chicago comes to Auckland" summing up reaction to the gangland-style killings.

Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment. Jorgensen was freed in 1974 but was soon recalled for selling cannabis.

He was at the centre of another controversy in 1984. Soon after he was bailed to live with his elderly Danish father in Kaikoura, his car was found at the bottom of a cliff. But Jorgensen's body was never found and police believe he faked his death.

There have been several unconfirmed sightings since, most recently in 2000 at the Kumeu show.

Some believe police allowed him to flee in exchange for information on his criminal associates, and an alleged sighting in Perth led to the theory that he became a police informant in Australia.

Jorgensen, who would now be in his mid-70s, was declared legally dead in 1998.

The mystery has made his prison paintings sought-after. Two years ago, a Picton couple bought a still-life for $5000 on Trade Me and collected the painting from a man in Christchurch who said he had been in a cell next to Jorgensen. Later, a portrait of Arthur Allan Thomas, wrongfully convicted of murder, came to light. Thomas and Jorgensen were in prison together in the 1970s. The owner of the pencil and crayon portrait gifted it to Te Papa.