First it was fast cars, now there's another sign that the economy is on the up: the booming art market. Leading NZ auction house Webbs says 31,000 items went under the hammer this year, raking in $17m.

Visitors to Waiheke are invited to experience Oneroa's new sculpture project, writes Donna McIntyre.

Liz Light takes a splendid summer walk.

The radical restructuring of Unitec's design and visual arts department has mystified many who took part in a quality assurance review of the school last year.

A radical new teaching model has sparked fears of creative decline at one of our most successful visual art schools.

Dick Frizzell's five portrait paintings of inspiring New Zealanders commissioned for the Herald's 150th birthday will be auctioned for charity tomorrow night.

A never-before-seen painting by Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards has been stashed in a drawer in a swanky Auckland bed and breakfast for the past seven years.

A Picasso valued at US$1 million ($1.2 million) is the prize in an unprecedented online Christmas charity raffle.

The influential Australian artist, cartoonist and co-founder of Oz magazine Martin Sharp has died at the age of 71.

When a mutual friend introduced Lucian Freud to Francis Bacon it seeded a competitive friendship between the two titans of 20th century figurative art, who made each other a favoured subject.

Today's special edition honours Kiwi greats and celebrates memories good and bad since Herald first published in 1863.