Beyond Goldie & McCahon: NZ’s Priciest Artworks
The top 10 auction results from other Kiwi greats
This week, we’re looking at the most expensive lots ever sold at auction in New Zealand. Based on my data, there are 16 paintings by New Zealand artists that have sold for over NZD $1 million — more than the average house price in the country. Remarkably, 11 of these belong to just two artists: seven by Charles Goldie and four by Colin McCahon.
Together, they’ve turned the upper end of the market into something of a two horse race (and we’ll look at them individually at some point in the future). Take them out of the picture, though, and a more diverse top tier emerges: six other artists whose works have soared into six- and seven-figure territory. Here’s the countdown:
#10 Gordon Walters Makora
Sold for $705,050 at Webbs in 2022. Part of the Bank of New Zealand Art Collection, this striking black-and-white composition features asymmetric korus — white on the left, black on the right — creating a powerful visual tension.
#9 Don Binney Mana Island.
Sold for $717,000 at Webbs in 2021. Commissioned by the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association during Binney’s time as a visiting lecturer, it hung for decades on the Kelburn campus. Like many students, I likely walked past it countless times, blissfully unaware of both the artist and the artwork’s significance. This work captures the bold, flattened planes of land, sea, and sky distilling the coastal landscape into Binney’s distinctive colours and shapes.
#8 Gordon Walters Koru.
Sold for $784,550 at Art & Object in 2021. Achieved the lower end of its $650,000–$950,000 estimate, but still set a new auction record for Walters’ work. The measured repetition of the koru motif, reduced here to its purest geometric essence, reflects Walters’ mastery in transforming a cultural symbol into a serene, meditative field of rhythm and balance.
#7 Don Binney Swoop of the Kotare
Sold for $700,000 at International Art Centre in 2024, approximately $855,000 including premium. I think this is one of his most iconic works which he’s replicated both on paper (that sold earlier in 2025) and in a two limited edition prints. There was also a similar work in 1969 with the kotare / kingfisher flying in the opposite direction. If this one was outside your budget, you can get a print at auction in the range of $20,000 - $30,000.
#6 Bill Hammond Melting Moments II
Sold for $926,125 at Webbs in 2021, well above its $350,000 - $550,000 estimate. Hammond began painting his signature bird-humans in 1993; by the time he painted this work in 1999, he had scaled up his canvases to deliver a much more immersive impact.
#5 Gottfried Lindauer Portrait of Harawira Te Mahikai, Chief of the Ngati Kahunga Tribe
This sold for $840,000 excluding buyer’s premium at International Art Centre, equating to $1,009,008 with buyers. This smashed Lindauer’s previous auction record of $307,425. Best known for his portraits of Māori, Lindauer here depicts Harawira Te Mahikai, a signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi, in a work of both cultural and historical significance.
#4 Don Binney Heron’s Departure, New Spring, Te Henga
Sold for $1,110,440 at Art & Object in 2022 against an estimate of $550,000 - $850,000. Painted in 1964, during what is widely regarded as Binney’s most accomplished period, this work captures the serene flight of the heron over Bethells Beach / Te Henga and carries excellent provenance, having been exhibited at the Auckland City Art Gallery.
#3 Bill Hammond Melting Moments I
Sold for $1,674,025 at Webbs in 2023, surpassing the previous record set by Melting Moments II (at #6 on our list). Hammond fills the canvas with his distinctive bird–human hybrids, their forms seamlessly merging beaks, wings, limbs, and torsos into confident, otherworldly figures. Against a shimmering backdrop of gold and green, these creatures inhabit a restless, clamorous world where bells and aeroplanes overwhelm birdsong, evoking both the vitality and the unease of a disrupted paradise.
#2 Tony Fomison The Fugitive
Sold for $1,822,375 at Webbs in 2022 as part of the the Bank of New Zealand Art Collection. This work far exceeded its estimate of $600,000 - $800,000 and shattered Fomison’s previous record of $516,500. In The Fugitive, a solitary, naked figure flees across a somber, almost animate landscape. Gnarled roots grip gigantic rocks, giving the terrain a sense of psychological menace. Fomison’s characteristic blend of brooding atmosphere and narrative urgency gives the work a charged complexity with broader questions of identity, escape, and cultural displacement.
#1 Michael Parekowhai A peak in Darien
Sold for $2,051,900 at Art & Object in 2021 far exceeding its estimate of $900,000 - $1,400,000. From the collection of Adrian Burr and Peter Tatham, it set the record for the highest price ever achieved for a New Zealand artwork at the time - and remains the highest for a living New Zealand artist.
The title, referencing a near-death experience, comes from John Keats’ sonnet On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer. As Parekowhai explained: “I made a bronze piano that sits outside in the garden and on top of that stands a Spanish fighting bull so as you sit on the bronze piano stool, you are looking into the eyes of this Spanish bull.”
Two honourable mentions for our list: (1) Rita Angus narrowly misses out on the list with her Storm, Hawke’s Bay that sold for $696,725 at Art & Object in 2018 and places it 11th in the list above. If we included works sold in Australia, Angus’ Hawke’s Bay Landscape (sold for AUD $828,409 / approx. NZD $1,017,000 at Deutscher and Hackett in 2022) would firmly place in the top 10; (2) Rosalie Gascoigne, a celebrated artist born in New Zealand but generally attributed to Australia, has also achieved multiple Australian auction results that would break into this list. We’ll have a look at best performing works by female artists in a few weeks.