Former Rotorua Museum director John Perry's collection will be up for auction in Auckland.
Former Rotorua Museum director John Perry's collection will be up for auction in Auckland.
Picasso prints and images of the Pink and White Terraces are among a trove of treasures from the collection of the late John Perry, former Rotorua Museum director, that will start being auctioned this week.
Perry, known for his great artistic mind, spent 20 years curating and directing the museum. He came to the museum in 1978 when there was no fine art and immediately began to do what he did best - collecting.
Since Perry’s death, Webb’s auction house has been working with his family to sort through thousands of lots, which will go to auction over the next few years.
The first auction will take place on Tuesday night at Webb’s showroom in Mount Eden, Auckland. Auctions will then occur fortnightly for the next three to five years.
A series of auctions will take place over the next three to five years.
Webb’s director of decorative arts Ben Erren said the collection was in a cinema that Perry owned in Auckland, which Erren described as “organised chaos”.
The theatre was 700 square metres - the equivalent of four tennis courts, he said.
“It is packed from top to bottom and you can only walk sideways in it.”
Erren said there were “many things” yet to be uncovered in the Perry collection “because it is just immense in its volume”.
“He understood how beautiful things were, whether they were worth $1 or $100,000.
“The amazing thing is there is no rubric for dealing with a collection of this size. Nobody in New Zealand has ever undertaken anything like this.”
“There are thousands and thousands and thousands of lots in there ... There is nothing like it.”
Rotorua Museum’s former director John Perry. Photo / Andrew Warner
Erren said during Perry’s time at Rotorua Museum, he was “instrumental” in bringing New Zealand/Dutch artist Theo Schoon’s work back to Aotearoa.
“We suspect that there will be some incredible Theo Schoon works in there that have not seen the light of day yet, which will be amazing.
“We’ve already uncovered Picasso prints, something that we suspect to be potentially from [French artist Paul] Gaugin.
“There is incredible historic New Zealand photography - there are beautiful images of Pink and White Terraces and early images in Rotorua and in Whakarewarewa and around that Tarawera area.
“And so we’re really looking forward to doing John justice by, not only obviously bringing them to auction, but by presenting them in a way that is respectful and honours his legacy.”
Erren said Perry was always “a fountain of knowledge about everything”.
“He was really informative and helped me early on in my career in terms of always offering knowledge and always encouraging robust debate around anything in terms of taonga or repatriation or the origin of certain objects.
“And the conversation was never finished. He just wanted to talk and it was never condescending. It was educational.”
Erren said Webb’s was “privileged” to hold Perry’s memorial service, with more than 600 people attending.
“He was incredibly well-respected.”
Proceeds from the auctions will go to Perry’s family.
