Famed opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is selling paintings from her art collection slated to be worth millions.
Famed Kiwi opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is selling her collection of paintings by the artist Charles Frederick Goldie.
The works are still being assessed, but the auctioneers – Parnell’s International Art Centre – say they’re expected to fetch millions of dollars.
Goldie was a New Zealand artist active from 1898 to 1941 who is best known for his portraits of Māori kaumātua.
‘Memories’, left, and ‘Tamaiti Tukino’ are two works that exemplify Charles Frederick Goldie’s style. They are not the works from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s collection being sold in April 2018.
Te Kanawa’s three Goldie paintings, the details of which are currently not being made public, will be sold alongside as several other significant works from her art collection at an April 2018 auction.
The Goldies have been on long-term loan to Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tāmaki for the past 25 years.
International Art Centre director Richard Thomson said the paintings were still being assessed but were likely to bring “several million dollars”.
“Dame Kiri has a very fine eye for art and these are some of Goldie’s best works,” Thomson said.
“With the provenance they have, we are anticipating the interest will be unlike anything we have ever seen for a work of art in New Zealand.”
Goldie’s works have consistently been among the most high-value New Zealand artworks sold.
His 1941 oil portrait of Wharekauri Tahuna was the first painting in New Zealand history to break the $1 million mark when it sold for $1.175 million in 2016.
Te Kanawa sold one of her Goldie works in 2010 – the painting Forty Winks – for $573,000. At the time it was the most paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand.
Thomson said the new batch of works from Te Kanawa’s collection could see records being broken.
“It is probable that we’re going to see a record price,” he said.
Thomson said he couldn’t name the works yet, but two of them depicted chiefs. More information would be made public in the new year.
“I haven’t got explicit details yet, but they are major pieces and it’s likely to be one of the more interesting auctions New Zealand has seen.”
He expected the auction to attract international interest, though any buyer wanting to take the works overseas would need the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
Thomson said he wasn’t sure why Te Kanawa was selling the pieces, but he thought she was cashing up some assets to support her retirement. Te Kanawa announced she was retiring from public singing in September this year.
“You can’t have everything in your 70s. I think she’s just doing what smart people do,” Thomson said.
source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/99399512/dame-kiri-te-kanawa-is-selling-her-collection-of-goldie-paintings