About us
Art+Object is the country’s leading auction house, offering regular specialist catalogues of modern and contemporary art, applied art, and rare books.
Art+Object was founded in early 2007 with the goal to bring a more contemporary voice to the Australasian auction scene. Directors Leigh Melville and Ben Plumbly bring decades of experience in the art and auction worlds together with significant business and professional achievements. Art+Object has pioneered the presentation of contemporary art and objects in an auction context; our very first auction set this direction and received great support from New Zealand collectors. Art+Object Directors are regular contributors to industry journals, public speakers, guest auctioneers, media commentators and have sat on peer review panels to public art institutions.
Art+Object holds ten to twelve auctions per annum. These are distinguishable by virtue of their often distinct theme and approach, along with industry leading catalogue design, exhibition display and online marketing which includes regular video presentations, online bidding and live streaming of auctions. These catalogues can be found in the archive section of our website.
The Art+Object team has over fifty years’ experience providing valuation advice to New Zealand's leading institutions, public galleries, museums and libraries as well as to private collectors and estates. Please refer to the valuation section of our website for more information on the services Art+Object provides in these areas. Art+Object's directors and staff are collectors and art lovers in their own right and it is fair to say the company was founded by collectors for collectors. This has resulted in Art+Object becoming the leading New Zealand auction house for the sale of large and diverse private and corporate collections.
Major Collections Sold
- 2023
Minimal Opulence: The Gary Langsford and Vicki Vuleta Collection
- 2023
The Lois Going Collection Glorious Vision: Art at the Centre of a Life Lived
- 2023
- 2022
Theo Schoon : An Outsider Looking in - The Christine Fernyhough Collection
- 2022
‘Some Pictures I Wrote’: The Collection of Professor Laurence Simmons
- 2022
- 2021
- 2019
- 2019
- 2018
- 2018
- 2017
- 2017
- 2017
- 2016
- 2016
- 2015
The Collection of Dame Judith te Tomairangi o te Aroha Binney and Sebastian Black
- 2015
- 2013
- 2011
- 2011
- 2010
Our Team
Top Ten Lots
- 2021
Michael Parekōwhai, A peak in Darien - price realised $2 051 900
- 2021
Colin McCahon, St Matthew: Lightning - price realised $1 961 375
- 2016
Colin McCahon, The Canoe Tainui - price realised $1 621 687
- 2022
Don Binney, Heron's Departure, New Spring, Te Henga - price realised $1 110 440
- 2021
Colin McCahon, Entombment after Titian - price realised $1 098 370
- 2019
Charles Frederick Goldie, Takahi Atama Paparangi, A Rangatira of high lineage, Rarawa Tribe - price realised $816 815
- 2021
Gordon Walters, Koru - price realised $763 750
- 2018
Don Binney, Pastoral, The Henga - price realised $684 710
- 2021
Bill Hammond, Signal Box: A Convocation of Eagles, Cave Painting No. 7 - price realised $675 920
- 2018
Rita Angus, Storm, Hawke’s Bay - price realised $696 695
- 2021
Gordon Walters, Mokoia - price realised $648 675
- 2022
Michael Parekōwhai, Kapa Haka (Officer Taumaha) - price realised $579 360