An oil painting of a Maori elder fetched a record price at auction on Tuesday, making it the most valuable work of art in New Zealand’s history.
The painting, by famous local artist Charles Frederick Goldie, depicts Wharekauri Tahuna, a priest said to be one of the last tattooed men of his generation.
According to the auction house, the NZ$3.75 million ($2.2 million; AU$1.7 million) sale also marked the highest price ever paid for a painting at the auction. auction in New Zealand.
It comes at a time of rising racial tensions in New Zealand, with the government recently introducing a bill that Māori say will harm their rights.
Reflections on Tohunga, painted nine years before Goldie’s death in 1947, is believed by art critics to be his best work.
It depicts the priest with a moko or facial tattoo and wearing a pendant called a hei-tiki around his neck.
Its sale to an unidentified buyer made it the most valuable Maori portrait in the history of New Zealand art.
“Goldie was loved by the Maori throughout his life, [he] lived in Auckland and met his subjects,” Richard Thomson, director of the International Art Center told the BBC, adding that this was the first time the painting had been sold in 33 years.
“New Zealanders have a strong bond with their history and Goldie portraits are always sought after,” he said, adding that since 2016 his auction house has sold 13 Goldie paintings and buyers paying more than a million New Zealand dollars each.
Wharekauri Tahuna is one of Goldie’s favorite subjects and appears in a number of his works.
Māori make up around 18% of New Zealand’s population, although many remain disadvantaged compared to the general population when assessed through indicators such as health status, household income, education level. education, incarceration rates, and mortality rates. There is still a seven-year gap in life expectancy.
Last week, a political party sought to pass a bill that would reinterpret the country’s founding treaty with the Maori people, known as the Treaty of Waitangi.
Thousands of people participated nine-day march opposed the bill, but it ultimately did not pass.
