Art+Object continues to increase its market share in 2012 as overall market grows significantly

ART+OBJECT is delighted to announce that for the second year running we have comfortably finished the auction season as New Zealand's leading fine art auction house, transacting total art sales through auction of just over $7 700 000, some $2 000 000 more than that of our nearest competitor. In 2011 we sold more art by value than any other auction house along with the two highest value individual sales of the year, Colin McCahon's He Call for Elias ($570 000), and Bill Hammond's Singer Songwriter ($322 000). In 2012 we've further extended our lead at the top end of the market again selling the two highest value paintings, Gordon Walters' Painting No. 7 ($433 000) and Gordon Walters' Mokoia ($415 000), both from the collection of Les and Milly Paris. Four further results in the top ten price list - Colin McCahon No. 6 ($293 000), Michael Smither The Family in the Van ($234 500), Ralph Hotere Requiem for Tony ($234 500) and Michael Illingworth As Adam and Eve ($234 500) - will also see the company significantly outnumber its competitors here. For the full list of the ten highest prices achieved at auction in this country see http://www.aasd.com.au/Top10NZ_ThisYear.cfm.

With full and final figures to be supplied by each of the auction houses in their final round of sales for the calendar year, it appears that 2012 will be a stand-out year for the New Zealand art market helped of course, in no small part, by the disbandment of the Paris Family collection which served to inject an additional $4 650 000 into the year's final revenue total. Another source of great satisfaction for both ourselves and the wider market was the number of new individual record prices for artist's achieved this year which signify an expanding and healthier New Zealand art market. Benchmarks were reset for no fewer than sixteen artists, fourteen of which were achieved in the saleroom at ART+OBJECT. These include new record high prices at auction for: Michael Smither, Robin White, Peter Robinson, Brent Wong, Allen Maddox, Michael Parekowhai, Philip Clairmont, Seraphine Pick, Peter Stichbury, Julian Dashper, Dale Frank, Charles Tole, Richard McWhannell, Liz Maw and Geoff Thornley. For the full list of artists and prices please see the full and independently compiled list at http://www.aasd.com.au/NewHighsCurrent.cfm.

ART+OBJECT is now accepting entries for its first major art sale of 2013, Important Paintings and Contemporary Art scheduled for April 4^th. The catalogue already includes genuine museum-quality works by Peter Robinson, Tony Fomison, Michael Smither and Michael Parekowhai.