Bayden Barber is “ecstatic” a portrait of Ngāti Kahungunu rangatira Harawira Te Mahikai will stay in Aotearoa, after it was sold for more than $1 million to an undisclosed New Zealand buyer at auction this week in Tāmaki Makaurau.
The 1883 Gottfried Lindauer painting - completed three years before Te Mahikai's passing - was predicted to sell for $550,000 to $850,000 but "very intense" bidding saw it finally sell for $1,009,008 at Thursday evening's auction - a record for a Lindauer artwork.
Barber, the Ngāti Kahungunu board chairperson, told the New Zealand Herald that while the iwi was unable to put up funds to bid on the artwork due to Cyclone Gabrielle and other costs, they hoped the buyer would be open to forming a relationship with them.
“We are hoping to make contact if we can,” Barber said.
The auction at the International Art Centre in Parnell also featured the sale of an artwork by Ralph Hotere (Te Aupōuri).
Ralph Hotere's Kyrie Eleison No 5. Source / International Art Centre
Hotere's 1974 oil on canvas, Kyrie Eleison No 5, sold for $96,096. It was expected to fetch up to $120,000.