Colin McCahon painting mystery: How a $225 auction ‘sleeper' sold for $31,000
Headlines allege what happened next: 'Painting by New Zealand's leading modern artist takes £14,000 after being identified by Fernhurst auctioneer' reported online news site Sussex World.
Did someone on the other side of the world really just score a McCahon for $31,000?
While Swain last week replied to an initial email from the New Zealand Herald neither he, nor a public relations company for John Nicholson's, have responded to two follow-up emails seeking to clarify how Lot 176 came to be reported as a McCahon. It was certainly not listed as such in the auction catalogue and an £80-£100 sales estimate gave no suggestion this was an auction to watch.
There were, arguably, other clues.
On the reverse of the painting there was a title, initials and a date – Truth from the King Country Load Bearing Structures, C.McC '78. Search the internet for that information and turn up 1300-plus results leading to a single artist's name: Colin John McCahon.
Did John Nicholson's Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers research the painting's title? Does it have more information on the work's provenance or ownership history? How many people bid on the work? What factors led to its initial price estimate?
Swain has not responded to these questions, but last week told the Herald: 'We had no requests for condition reports or extra photographs so had no inkling until the bidding started at £75 and quickly accelerated to over £10,000, much to the delight of the auctioneer and the people (including the vendor) in the saleroom.
'When something sells at auction at a high price, but having had a low guide price, it is known in the trade as a 'sleeper',' Swain said.
'You rarely get them these days as the internet and interest generated from it usually gives an auctioneer some clue before the auction day that what they have is more valuable than otherwise thought.'
The Herald understands at least one Auckland auction house that has been approached about the work will not be offering it for sale.
In New Zealand, the most valuable artwork ever sold at public auction was by Colin McCahon – $2.39 million, paid in 2022.
The last time anything by the Timaru-born artist's Truth from the King Country series went to auction locally, bidding stopped just short of $106,000.
The Sussex-sold painting has the hallmarks of a work from that series.
'I've made 31 paintings called Truth from the King Country & am on the next 6 now,' McCahon wrote in a 1978 letter to his friend, Ron O'Reilly. 'All small & lovely - yellow, orange, toad green & black - they have taken me 3 months to make. I have been handing them out as gifts to Dunedin people who I owe something to.'
Colin McCahon's Truth from the King Country: Load Bearing Structures (Large) No. 6 was sold by Auckland's Art + Object for $89,300 in 2017. Photo / Greg Bowker
The version just sold in the United Kingdom was described as 'black T shape on green and yellow background'. Not noted in the auction catalogue text, but evident from accompanying photographs, was a further identifier – the phrase 'large 6' painted inside a small white rectangle.
Truth from the King Country comprises multiple sub-series, one of which is called 'Large'. Three images from the 'Large' sub-series – 5, 6 and 7 – are easily searchable via an online catalogue of works authenticated by the Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust.
Curiously, a 'Large 6″ is also searchable via the New Zealand Herald.
In 2017, the Herald ran photographs of it to illustrate the differences between an authenticated work from the 'Large' Truth sub-series and another ('Large 8') that had sold for a song at an auction in Surrey, England.
Confused? Compare the authenticated 'Large 6' with the similarly titled work sold last month in Sussex, and they look nothing alike – until you turn them over.
A screenshot of an image presented in an online catalogue listing for a painting that sold last month at auction in England for approximately $31,000.
Truth from the King Country: Load bearing structures (Large) 6 is a verified Colin McCahon painting, auctioned at Auckland's Art + Object in Auckland in 2017. Photo / Greg Bowker
Peter Simpson, local McCahon scholar and author of multiple books about the artist, says it is 'always hard to be certain' about the authenticity of a painting, even with access to the original.
He said photographs of the reverse of the Sussex-sold work showed it shared many characteristics with known authenticated examples from the series, but: 'I am doubtful if this is an original McCahon.'
Simpson says the dimensions listed in the auction catalogue for the Sussex-based work indicated a painting that was 'considerably smaller' than other known 'Large' examples. He also says a gap between the top of the black 'T' (the Tau cross) and the edge of the painting is not consistent with other works he has seen from that sub-series. Meanwhile, the arrangement of the hills, with a separating ridge, was unlike anything he had observed across the entirety of the Truth series.
'These do not look like King Country hills ... The painting of the hills, while McCahon-like, does not strike my eye as authentic – more likely a clever copy by someone closely familiar with the series.'
Simpson notes the existence of an already recorded 'Large 6' on the Colin McCahon database.
'Colin was careful with his documenting and although he did occasionally make mistakes – spelling mistakes for example – it is extremely unlikely he would have given two works the same number.'
In 2017, it was Simpson who told the Herald the 'Large 8' that had been sold in the United Kingdom was unlikely to have been a lost McCahon.
'I don't think so,' he said. 'When I first saw it, I thought it looked genuine. The thing that has made me the most dubious is the handwriting. Although it's a fair imitation of Colin's hand, if you compare it closely, there are all sorts of differences in the way that individual letters are formed.'
More recently, in 2021, Auckland's International Art Centre halted the $87,000 sale of a work called Truth from the King Country: Load Bearing Structures: Series Three while it tried to establish a more complete ownership trail. Back then, Simpson noted anomalies in the information on that painting's reverse, but also said 'if this particular work is a forgery, it is infinitely more sophisticated than any I've seen'.
Commenting this week on why the Truth series might be more susceptible to copies than other McCahon's, Simpson pointed to the sheer number of works across the various sub-series ('nearly 40') and the relative simplicity of the design.
'Dark T against hill and sky – not too hard to copy perhaps. The works are smallish, but valuable. Most sell these days for around $100,000 ... a great return for smallish effort if you can bring it off.'
It's not impossible a previously unknown McCahon could make it to auction.
Last year, when the Colin McCahon Trust launched a major project to preserve and revitalise its ageing digital archive of more than 1800 works, it called for owners of potentially uncatalogued works to come forward.
Colin McCahon's grandsons, Peter Carr (left) and Finn McCahon-Jones, photographed ahead of last year's launch of a two-year legacy project to revitalise the ageing online database of the artist's works. Photo / Michael Craig
Finn McCahon, trustee and the artist's grandson, noted that McCahon was known in Australia, collectors had taken his work to the UK and, in 1958, he had travelled to America with his wife and fellow artist Anne (nee Hamblett).
'His practice has legs, and for people who understand contemporary art, he fits into this global context. So we don't know what's happened behind closed doors out there.'
In a statement to the Herald last week, Peter Carr, trust chairman and the artist's eldest surviving grandson, said while a number of people had made contact with the trust, no previously unknown paintings had come to light, 'a reflection of the strength of the irreplaceable research carried out by the Trust and academics in the early 1990s'.
Carr said the trust, via a panel of experts, had a 'rigorous' process for reviewing and verifying artworks thought to be by McCahon. Because the work sold at auction in the United Kingdom last month had not been through that process, 'it was not possible to comment on its veracity ... '
Carr confirmed the trust was not aware that the work was for sale and had not had any correspondence with the auction house.
Kim Knight is an award-winning arts journalist with the New Zealand Herald's lifestyle desk.
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NZ Herald
8 hours ago
- NZ Herald
The legacy of Sir Michael Hill: Jeweller, violinist, philanthropist
And now he's gone, aged 86. Despite the green smoothies and the vigorous health regime, cancer sadly caught up with him in the end earlier this week. Hill's story is so familiar that most Kiwis from his era will know it: The shy, picked-on boy who hated school but found solace learning the violin at primary school and later at Whangārei Boys' High. He went on to build a multi-million business with 287 stores in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. He dreamed of becoming a professional violinist, practising up to eight hours a day after he dropped out of school. Hearing about a Herald violin competition, his parents agreed to support him if he won. Young Michael played a Haydn violin concerto, came fourth and that was the end of that. Young Michael Hill dreamed of playing the violin as a career. He was put to work as an apprentice watchmaker in his Uncle Arthur's Whangārei jewellery shop. Uncle Arthur thought his nephew was pretty 'useless' and eventually sent him out to the shop front instead, a move he might one day have lived to regret. The teenage Michael loved the retail side, the thrill of a sale. He might have stayed there forever – he endured it for 20 years – had it not been for a devastating house fire. By then Hill had met the love of his life, Christine Roe, a young arts teacher from Yorkshire. They met in November 1964 and married four months later. Sir Michael and Lady Christine Hill shared a love of art and music. Photo / Mark Hill They had two children, Mark and Emma, and slowly built their Claude Megson-designed dream home, inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, on the Whangārei Heads. The family went to the movies one night and came home to find it ablaze. Rescuing the violin and the jewels Shocked at the sight, Hill rushed inside to rescue his 150-year-old violin and his wife's jewellery. Those rescued items were to dominate the rest of his life. Devastated by the smouldering – and uninsured – remains of his house, he vowed that things would change. When his uncle refused to sell him the business, he opened his own shop – Michael Hill Jeweller – five doors away in 1979. But this shop was nothing like Uncle Arthur's or any other jewellery shop at the time for that matter. Gone were the traditional clocks, china, crystal, trophies, china and silver. Michael Hill Jeweller would sell only jewellery and watches. The shop had a wide entrance and the goods were temptingly displayed in generous-sized glass counters. Michael and Christine Hill, with their children Mark and Emma, outside their first shop in Whangārei in 1979. He did a turnover of $400,000 in his first year; six years later the turnover had increased to $7 million with the help of six shops and 70 staff. Hill might have had a late start but the 'useless' jeweller was on his way. He wrote in his book Toughen Up, by which time he was a multi-millionaire, 'I took him [the uncle] at his own game ... and I won.' The school drop-out went on to build a global business which made him rich enough to own a Stradivarius violin, build a beautiful home near Arrowtown, and establish The Hills, an 18-hole championship golf course and a nine-hole course known as The Farm, built on a 200ha estate dotted with stunning sculptures. The Hills golf resort near Arrowtown showing the clubhouse and the 18th hole. He used to drive his Aston Martin very fast on the private road between his home and the golf club, just for the thrill of it. Hill named his first superyacht (34m) VvS1, a jewellery term for an almost flawless diamond. That was something he had learned in life, he said. 'Nothing is perfect, that's what keeps you striving for more.' Sir Michael Hill on board his super yacht VVSI in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour in 2015. Photo / Nick Reed Some wacky ideas Hill's ambition was limited only by his imagination and, by all accounts, he had plenty of it. Family friend Anne Rodda described him as 'an entrepreneur, a dreamer and a big thinker'. 'There was a lot to Michael. That fizzy brain, the one that's always coming up with ideas, some brilliant, some absolutely unattainable and wacky. One out of 10 of his ideas would be absolutely brilliant and we'd go with that.' Rodda, a trained classical cellist, met Hill 25 years ago in her role as artistic manager for the Auckland Philharmonia. She heard he wanted to organise a violin competition and she helped make it happen. Since then she's been the competition's executive director. Anne Rodda, the executive director of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, pictured with Sir Michael in 2023. Photo / James Robertson The resulting Michael Hill International Violin Competition (the next one is in May 2026) is now recognised as one of the most important events in the cultural calendar. Sixteen competitors, selected from 160 applicants around the world, are flown to Queenstown to audition in front of seven international judges. The finalists then perform in front of a packed Auckland Town Hall audience and the judges. In 2023, 350,000 people watched the livestreamed finalists' performance, and the competition auditions attracted 1.3m views online. Hill was not just invested financially in the competition but on a deep personal level, Rodda says. 'He was sitting in the front row of every competition. He would bounce up in the interval full of enthusiasm, sure that the last one he heard play was going to win. He sat through all the auditions as the panel selected the competitors.' In his own way, Hill was helping talented young musicians achieve what he had been unable to do, have a career as a professional artist. 'It's an incredible story,' Rodda says. 'The competition is what was closest to his soul and the thing that gave him the most resonance and the most joy in his life.' Although he never played professionally, his love of the violin endured. In his 80s he still practised Bach on his 190-year-old Italian violin, kayaked on Lake Hayes and played golf. Sir Michael Hill practising Bach on his violin at home in / Mark Hill In a moving video tribute to their violin mentor, the 11 first-prize winners from the violin competitions contributed to a recording of Bach's Chaconne in D minor in his memory, each playing a different part of the movement. 'Michael Hill ... jeweller' But the wider public rarely saw the dedicated violinist who practised for hours. Instead. many will remember Hill from his excruciating TV ads that ran through the 80s. 'Hello,' he'd say in his best nasal tone, smiling at the camera, 'Michael Hill ... (pause) jeweller.' He'd purse his lips to emphasis the 'M'. The ads were irritating, to the point where DJs would mock and impersonate him. The jeweller even tried to teach his daughter Emma to impersonate him, but no one could quite pull it off. "Hello, Michael If anyone pointed out to him how awful his ads were, Hill would laugh. He was the first to admit they were 'unbelievably boring and amateurish' and that he looked 'terrible' in those early ads. But the point was, they worked. Everyone in New Zealand knew who Michael Hill was and what he sold. And they came to buy his jewellery. In 1987, Michael Hill International listed on the NZX, buoyed by steadily increasing sales and successful shop openings. Four months later the stock market crashed, a day that became known as Black Monday (October 19). Kiwis investors lost fortunes overnight and billions of dollars were wiped off the value of New Zealand shares. (The company had a less eventful listing on the ASX in 2016). It could have been the end of Michael Hill, jeweller, but no. Several smaller jewellery businesses didn't survive and Hill saw it as an opportunity to pick up new business when the economy recovered. That year he won the Air New Zealand enterprise award for business entrepreneurship and made it to the big smoke, opening his largest shop in Auckland's Queen St. And he started moving into the Australian market. Sir Michael Hill at the company's flagship Queen St store in Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs Not one to arrive quietly, a September 1989 newspaper clipping trumpets: 'Michael Hill's sale a riot.' And indeed it was. Hundreds of bargain hunters broke into a Canberra shopping mall at 4am, eager to get first dibs on $1 diamond rings, stock that Michael Hill International wanted to clear from a shop before displaying its own range. By the time the shop opened, 700 people were crowded outside and a woman punched a shop assistant when she was told she could only buy one ring. It took four carloads of police and the mall security guards to clear the crowd. Australians were also incensed to see a series of jewellery bargains scrolling in a TV ad, accompanied by the piercing sound of a bugle playing The Last Post. The ad caused pandemonium at the Michael Hill head office as complaints poured in, the Australian Ministry of Defence was enraged, there were bomb threats in Sydney and it made front-page news. But, as Sir Michael said at the time, 'sales went through the roof'. In his own way, he was a showman, full of ideas – often quirky - designed to make a splash. In 1988, he hired a woman, clad in a black sports bra, a striped bikini bottom and black tights to show off $450,000 worth of jewellery at the maiden annual shareholder meeting in Whangārei. Hill wasn't one for clustering his shareholders into boring meeting rooms. Instead, he'd take them for a joyride on the Waitematā Harbour, entertained by a jazz band; or a cruise to a vineyard on Waiheke Island, or to Pakatoa Island, or to the Ellerslie Racecourse. Sir Michael Hill entertained his shareholders with a jazz band on the Quickcat catamaran in 1989, with his accountant John Ryer (left) and joint managing director Howard Bretherion (right). One time his shareholders met in an aircraft hangar in Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology (Motat). At each AGM they were usually told the joyous news that the company could expect another tax-paid profit, and that new shops were about to be added to the fast-growing chain. For the company's 10th AGM in 1997, 250 shareholders were loaded onto a train in Auckland bound for Waimauku. Hill, nattily dressed in pinstriped pants and sporting a red tie decorated with yellow worms, served bubbly and wine on the journey to his faithful followers. Again the news was good: a plan to open 100 stores and move to other countries as the market became saturated. Former Herald writer Bernadette Rae was on the train that day. As she put it: 'So many fingers to ring, so many necks to chain.' In the early 1990s, everything Michael-Hill-jeweller touched seemed to turn to gold. (He famously sold his wife's engagement rings four times after they were admired, each time replacing it with a bigger stone). Sir Michael and Lady Christine Hill at the opening of their revamped Whangārei store in 2013. Sir Michael famously sold his wife's engagement ring four times. Then came the stumble of the shoe era. He bought the assets from a Christchurch shoe company and by 1992 had added nine shoe shops to his 41 jewellery stores. The trouble was they not only didn't make money, they lost money, a lot. By 1994 all nine shoe stores had closed and 'Michael Hill ... cobbler' was no more. He later acknowledged that the foray into shoes was a 'disaster' and that the company needed to stick to jewellery and watches. Undeterred by the footwear trip-up, the group continued to expand. Well on his way to saturating the Australian market, Hill based his family in Queensland's Sanctuary Cove in the mid 1990s, with his launch Rough Diamond parked at the back door. 'A wimpy thing to do' He couldn't understand why more people didn't want to get into retail. By 2009, he had 250 stores in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, opening new stores so fast he couldn't find enough staff to fill them. He was puzzled why Kiwis were willing to work in hospitality but thought a male working in a jewellery shop was a 'wimpy, poncy thing to do'. So he wrote Toughen Up (the proceeds of which went to Cure Kids) as a recruitment tool. He told me during an interview that his CEO earned three, possibly four, times more than the (then) Prime Minister John Key. Don't ever suggest working in a shop is a dead-end career, he said. By then he had invested in Joe's Garage in Arrowtown and had no shortage of applicants wanting to work in the cafe, but he was struggling to find good people to join his jewellery empire. Take his group diamond buyer at the time, Galina Hirtzel, he said, a girl from Invercargill who stated on $10 an hour. She was now (in 2009) flying round the world spending $100m of the company's money on diamonds every year. He thought her hippy long hair and floaty dress tricked merchants into not realising she was a tough negotiator. Knighted in 2011 for services to business and the arts, Hill was exhilarated by the company's growth and didn't mind talking it up, describing himself on one interview as 'the Ferrari of the jewellery business'. He was a businessman in the quick lane overtaking the rest of the jewellery world. At the same time he told business journalists he wanted 'controlled, sensible growth'. He and Lady Christine built a home on land that used to be a deer farm. Locals nicknamed it 'Hillbrook' and some took exception to the building, complaining it was too 'pink'. That caused the council to request a colour change; the Hills held firm. The 'terracotta' house later won the South Regional Architectural Award (for its colour scheme), a victory that used to make Hill chuckle. The Hills are a close family. Children Emma and Mark, and the four grandchildren, all live on the estate, with sculptures by Mark Hill among other artworks strategically placed through The Hills. Sculptor Mark Hill with his sculpture "Emergence", made from hand-forged corten steel, at The Hills Golf Club. He preferred to be low key and with the family when he was on holiday, often escaping Otago's winter to cruise in the Pacific on The Beast, his 40m adventure catamaran. In the summer The Beast's captain, Andy Grocott, who has worked for 'the boss' since 2006, would sail to remote places in New Zealand's Far North so the Hills could fish, swim, hike, dive and kayak. Jetskis were not their style. Sir Michael Hill and family preferred to explore remote places on The Beast. Photo / Michael Craig As tributes poured in this week, members of The Hills golf club penned their own. 'Rest peacefully Sir Michael,' it said at the end. 'You will forever be part of The Hills.' Beneath is one of the many cartoons he drew for his own and others' amusement. It shows an aviator clinging to a rocket as it zooms into space. Underneath Hill has signed off with the quote, 'Live every day as if it was going to be your last, for one day you're sure to be right.' Jane Phare is the New Zealand Herald's deputy print editor. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Tap water title down the drain
PHOTO: ODT FILES Timaru's hopes of winning a coveted transtasman title for the best-tasting tap water went down the drain last week. The Timaru District Council's Seadown water supply went head-to-head with Australia's reigning titleholder, Isaac Regional Council's Glenden scheme from Queensland, but the Australian entry took top (tap?) honours. The showdown, known in the industry as the ''Bledisloe Cup of tap-water tasting'', took place in Newcastle, New South Wales. Timaru earned its place in the transtasman final after taking out New Zealand's national water taste test on May 29 at the Water Industry Operations Group of New Zealand annual conference and awards in Nelson. Municipal water suppliers from across the country were invited to submit samples of their finest drop, with the Seadown plant ultimately crowned this year's national winner. Australia's competition followed a similar process. Water authorities from both regional and metropolitan areas competed in state-based heats, with the winners advancing to the national final. Isaac Regional Council's Glenden scheme emerged as the overall Australian champion. The IXOM-sponsored Transtasman Water Taste Test is a fun way to raise awareness of the quality of drinking water in New Zealand and Australia, and to recognise the efforts of local water operators and their teams to deliver valuable water services to their communities. During judging, water samples are subjected to a blind taste test and rated according to the ''Water tasting wheel''. The wheel outlines some of the attributes water professionals use when assessing water such as colour, clarity, odour and taste. Water industry operations group chairman Joshua McIndoe said many of us turned on taps for a drink, to cook and to shower, with little thought about the complexities involved in operating and maintaining the water infrastructure. "The competition highlights the dedication of individuals and organisations that work tirelessly to provide their communities with safe, high-quality drinking water every day." — Allied Media
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
‘Most generous heart': Founder of New Zealand's first Samoan language early childcare centre dies
Jan Taouma co-founded the first Samoan early childhood centre in New Zealand, the A'oga Fa'a Samoa, in Auckland in the 1980s. RNZ Photo / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Jan Taouma co-founded the first Samoan early childhood centre in New Zealand, the A'oga Fa'a Samoa, in Auckland in the 1980s. RNZ Photo / Cole Eastham-Farrelly One of the Auckland Samoan community's biggest advocates for maintaining the Samoan language and culture in New Zealand has died. Jan Taouma, co-founder of the country's first Pacific Island language early childhood centre, is being remembered for her dedication and work in the ECE sector that spanned over 40 years. She died in Auckland over the weekend, surrounded by her seven children. She was in her 77. Known affectionately as 'Mama Jan,' Taouma helped to establish the Aoga Fa'a Samoa early childcare centre in Auckland in the early 1980s, after recognising the importance of keeping the language alive among New Zealand-born Samoans.
