A RT AU CT I O N
Supporting the national music centre 13 September 2018
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Inside cover: Artist’s impression of the national music centre Cover: Lot 9, Terry Stringer, Sea-Sound, Like Violins (2018), (Title from a line in Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Op.37, a song cycle) 2
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Art Auction Supporting the national music centre
In a unique collaboration between Victoria University of Wellington, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Wellington City Council, a vision is taking shape for a world-class national music centre in Wellington’s Civic Square. With an upgraded and strengthened Wellington Town Hall at its heart and the redevelopment of adjacent buildings, the new centre will be home to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Victoria University’s New Zealand School of Music, and will provide a national foundation for musical performance, education, culture and the arts. Kindly supported by Dunbar Sloane Ltd, the Art Auction will assist the fundraising efforts to realise this vision. We would also like to thank the various galleries and artists for their generous donations of artworks to the auction. 5.30 pm, Thursday 13 September 2018 Grand Dining Room, Wellesley Boutique Hotel 2–8 Maginnity Street, Wellington We warmly invite you to attend the auction. Please register to attend. victoria.ac.nz/art-auction
Absentee bidding If you are unable to attend the auction, you may submit an absentee bid (see page 36 or go to www.victoria.ac.nz/absentee-bidding). Telephone bidding can be arranged on lots over $10,000 in value. Telephone lines are limited and are procured on a first-registered basis. We accept no responsibility if, for any reason, we are unable to contact you, and for this reason encourage you to leave a covering bid. Contact Jill Robinson at jill.robinson@vuw.ac.nz to arrange telephone bidding. 2
IMAGE TO COME
Wellington Town Hall
Viewing Ground Floor, Wellesley Boutique Hotel 2–8 Maginnity Street, Wellington Tuesday 11 September, 10 am–5 pm Wednesday 12 September, 10 am–5 pm Thursday 13 September, 10 am–2 pm
Enquiries For further information, or to discuss other ways you can support the national music centre, contact: Jill Robinson Development Manager, Special Projects, Victoria University of Wellington
jill.robinson@vuw.ac.nz +64-4-463 5325 3
1 Heather Straka Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Kia Ora, 2012 Silk-screen print, 4/100, framed 650 x 490 mm $1,850
Courtesy of the artist and Page Blackie Gallery Heather Straka’s practice regularly explores the nature of authenticity and issues around representation. Kia Ora reflects Aotearoa’s increasingly multicultural identity and came out of Straka’s project The Asian, which saw the mass duplication by Chinese artisans of her interpretation of a portrait based on the Shanghai girls seen in earlytwentieth century calendar painting.
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2 Graham Fletcher Title Tar-Baby, 2003 Medium Screen print, 26/30 Size of work 700 x 500 mm Estimate $600 Courtesy of Adam Art Gallery An artist of mixed Samoan and European heritage, Graham Fletcher deftly manipulates the visual and material cultures of both to create works that are politically astute and visually glorious.
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3 Jenny Doležel Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Like You, Really, 2003 Screen print, 26/30 500 x 700 mm $650
Courtesy of Adam Art Gallery Jenny Doležel’s work is an exploration of a psychological and physical territory that exists in the elusive realm between the known and the unknown, the real and the imagined.
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4 Dick Frizzell Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Trickle Down, 2003 Screen print, 26/30 700 x 500 mm $2,000
Courtesy of Adam Art Gallery Dick Frizzell’s work has always been characterised by a highly skilled handling of paint and an endlessly inventive range of subject matter. His taste is conveniently broad and he has a penchant for fondly remembered and well-worn clichÊs.
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5 Shane Cotton Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Kikorangi, 2003 Screen print, 26/30 500 x 700 mm $3,500
Courtesy of Adam Art Gallery Shane Cotton is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated contemporary artists. His works evocatively include both Māori iconography and culture, and have explored questions of colonialism, cultural identity, Māori spirituality and death.
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Jennifer Windsor Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
“The creative energy seen in the Art Auction is the same energy that we hope to foster in New Zealand with the development of the national music centre. Our intention is to bring together the burgeoning talent of young musicians, composers and music scholars in Victoria University of Wellington’s New Zealand School of Music with the mastery of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and grow community and cultural engagement with music.”
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6 Ngataiharuru Taepa Title Te Pitau a Tiki—Revisited, 2012 Medium Screen print, 27/50, framed Size of work 760 x 560 mm Estimate $1,380 Courtesy of the artist and Page Blackie Gallery Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa, Ngati Pākehā) developed his interest in the visual arts while attending Te Aute College in Central Hawkes Bay, where he assisted with the making of kōwhaiwhai panels for meeting house Te Whare o Rangi under the guidance of art teacher
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Mark Dashper. His current practice includes installation works that look at contemporary issues within New Zealand society, as well as paintings and wood works that are fuelled by a childhood fascination with kōwhaiwhai.
7 Kate Woods Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Waimakariri River (Attwood, Oppenheim), 2018 Type C print, 3/4 654 x 498 mm $3,000
Courtesy of the artist and Bartley and Company Art Kate Woods is a Wellington-based artist who has exhibited widely in New Zealand and overseas. Woods employs found images of traditional, and frequently iconic landscapes and disrupts them by re-photographing and inserting her own geometric constructions to question representations of the real, and suggest portals to alternatives.
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8 Marie Le Lievre Title Medium Size Estimate
Leaving, 2016 Oil, graphite, inkjet print, gesso on wood panel 600 x 600 mm $3,200
Courtesy of the artist and Bartley and Company Art A Victoria University of Wellington graduate, Marie Le Lievre later focused on her art before completing a Master of Fine Arts with Distinction from the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. Drawing out tensions between chaos and order, Le Lievre
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constructs her paintings with layers of sometimes opaque, sometimes thinly dispersed pigments. She builds complex arrangements of colour fields that stack and grate, while simultaneously slipping and bleeding into one another and across grainy drawn gestures.
9 Terry Stringer Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Terry Stringer, Sea-Sound, Like Violins (2018) (Title from a line in Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Op.37, a song cycle) Bronze 260 mm (H) $4,800
Courtesy of the artist Terry Stringer graduated with Honours from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 1967 and in the following years received virtually every significant scholarship and award available to New Zealand artists. Working predominantly in bronze, Stringer’s sculptures mainly depict figures and still-life subjects.
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10 John Walsh Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Songs of Freedom, 2018 Oil on canvas 610 x 914 mm $12,000
Courtesy of the artist and Page Blackie Gallery John Walsh (Aitanga a Hauiti) melds histories of migration and colonialism with contemporary narratives and mythologies in a vibrant and fluid application of paint. His works depict ethereal landscapes populated by a cast of anthropomorphic creatures, contemporary characters and obscure figures.
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“As I was finishing this painting, I found myself singing Bob Marley’s Redemption song with the words ‘ Won’t you help me sing these songs of freedom’.”
Wellington Town Hall auditorium
Kerry Prendergast CNZM Chair of the national music centre fundraising committee
“The development of a nationally significant precinct for musical, cultural and educational excellence in Wellington is one of those rare opportunities that can truly inspire a community to create something magnificent. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of the New Zealand artists and galleries that have contributed works to the auction. With their support, and yours, we can make this project a reality.�
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11 Robert Jahnke ONZM I Think, Therefore I Am—Cogito Ergo Sum, n.d. Title Lacquer on stainless steel Medium 1000 x 1000 x 30 mm Size of work $15,000 Estimate Courtesy of the artist Primarily a sculptor, Robert (Bob) Jahnke is considered one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary Māori artists. Jahnke is Professor of Māori Visual Arts at Massey’s School of Māori Art. His work is typically based on political issues that face Māori people, the relationship between Māori and European colonisers and the impact of Christianity on Māori culture.
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12 Gretchen Albrecht Title Rose Garden (CĂŠcile BrĂźnner), 2008 Medium Acrylic and oil on canvas, oval stretcher Size of work 740 x 1200 mm Estimate $24,000 Courtesy of the artist Gretchen Albrecht is widely known for her iconic hemispherical and ovoid works. Her consistent use of these shapes as structural boundaries in her career has allowed her the freedom to investigate colour and gesture as a response to an aesthetic idea.
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13 Peata Larkin Title Medium Size of work Estimate
The Theory of String I, 2018 Pure pigments and acrylic medium on mesh and canvas on LED lightbox 560 x 560 x 62 mm $6,000
Courtesy of the artist and Two Rooms Gallery Peata Larkin holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from RMIT, Melbourne. Larkin’s paintings explore the conjunctions between painting, weaving and digital technology. Larkin’s language is that of geometric abstraction and pattern deeply informed by Māori culture.
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14 Peata Larkin Title Medium Size of work Estimate
The Theory of String II, 2018 Pure pigments and acrylic medium on mesh and canvas on LED lightbox 560 x 560 x 62 mm $6,000
Courtesy of the artist and Two Rooms Gallery Peata Larkin is aware of the linkages between past and present, craft and art, two-dimension and three-dimension; the debates of sight and perception, surface versus distance, structure versus colour nuance. In this way, she asserts the relevance of painting in the digital, homogenised world.
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15 Elizabeth Thomson Title Mon Voyage Sauvage, 2014 Medium Glass spheres, optically clear epoxy adhesive, aqueous isolation, cast vinyl, lacquer on wood panel Size of work 640 x 955 mm Estimate $14,000 Courtesy of the artist and Page Blackie Gallery Elizabeth Thomson is constantly drawn towards investigations into the natural world, and her sculptural works occupy a space somewhere between art and science. Her recent exhibition at Page Blackie Gallery stemmed from recollections of her childhood in Titirangi and featured works made using cast-vinyl film, lacquer and contoured and shaped wood panels, each intricately hand-beaded with individual glass spheres. 20
(artwork detail)
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Donald Best Board Chair, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
“A national centre for musical excellence in Wellington will transform what the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra can do. Whether it’s working with young musicians from Victoria University of Wellington’s New Zealand School of Music, rehearsing for our national tours or recording film soundtracks, the centre will offer endless opportunities. The fact that so many of New Zealand’s leading artists have donated works for this fundraising auction is heartening. There is a long history of artists and musicians inspiring each other or, such as with abstract painter Kandinsky and composer Schoenberg, working together. It is no surprise that these New Zealand artists know what an impact the centre will have.”
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16 Ans Westra Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Wellington Railway Station, 1959 Pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 2/25 380 x 380 mm $2,150
Courtesy of the artist and Suite Gallery Ans Westra began her self-taught photographic career in the Netherlands in 1952, producing her first documentary series in 1956. In 1957, she emigrated to New Zealand, where she developed a career in photography that has spanned more than 50 years.
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17 Ans Westra Title Medium Size of work Estimate
School Students Performing, 1963 Pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 2/25 380 x 380 mm $2,150
Courtesy of the artist and Suite Gallery As a practiced photographer and new emigrant to New Zealand, Ans Westra quickly became enamoured with the culture of both urban and rural MÄ ori, her work reflecting this excitement and intrigue. Westra is known as one of New Zealand’s finest social and documentary photographers.
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18 Peter Madden Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Cover the Meaning of Your Face with the Mask of Who You will Become and Frighten the Girl You Used to Be, 2017 Mixed media on soft board 650 x 650 mm $12,000
Courtesy of the artist and Robert Heald Gallery Peter Madden creates sculptural installations and collages from flat images, including encyclopaedias, books, advertisements and magazines, which he often refashions into spiralling three-dimensional constructions.
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“Not since van Gogh lopped off his ear has an artist’s knife been put to such good use,” said Tessa Laird (writer and artist, Victorian College of the Arts).
19 Tony Lane Title Ghost Flower, 2018 Medium Oil paint on gesso ground Size of work 550 x 320 mm Estimate $5,500 Courtesy of the artist Tony Lane was born in Katikati and graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1970 with a Diploma of Fine Arts. Lane’s paintings seldom make reference to local imagery and are steeped in art history. They are not always easy to interpret, meaning you have to guess at their symbolism and the significance of their imagery.
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20 Karl Maughan Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Plume, 2012 Screen print, 36/100, framed 700 x 875 mm $2,210
Courtesy of the artist and Page Blackie Gallery Karl Maughan is known for his vibrant, celebratory paintings of gardens. Charles Saatchi became an early collector of his work and Plume was one of three significant works by Maughan that hung in Saatchi’s home. Saatchi regularly turns over his large art collection and Maughan seized the opportunity to buy this key work back and subsequently create this limited edition screen print.
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Wellington Town Hall
Justin Lester Mayor of Wellington
“It’s wonderful to see the arts community rallying behind the national music centre. The galleries, which usually deal in visual pieces, clearly see the value the centre will bring to Te Ngākau Civic Square and the arts precinct. To have the best musicians training and performing in the centre of Wellington is a mouth-watering prospect. Lunchtime concerts will bring the square to life and further enhance Wellington’s reputation as the cultural capital.”
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21 Roger Mortimer Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Approaches to Waitangi, 2016 Watercolour, gold dust and acrylic lacquer on canvas 700 x 750 mm $7,500
Courtesy of the artist and Bartley and Company Art Roger Mortimer’s richly lacquered paintings derive inspiration from history and legend, medieval texts, illuminated manuscripts, religious imagery and maps. We are drawn into a quest to decipher the clues, codes, symbols and signs depicted in his enigmatic maps.
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In 2014, Mortimer was the paramount winner of the Wallace Art Award.
22 Anne Noble Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Bruissement #4, 2016 (The Bee Wing Photograms, 2015–2017) Pigment print 680 x 1,800 mm $7,000
Courtesy of the artist and Bartley and Company Art Anne Noble is an internationally renowned New Zealand artist. Noble has developed a number of projects in recent years concerned with bees, global species loss and the revitalisation of human relationships to complex living systems. Noble uses found specimen slides, her own homemade microscope and electronic scanning microscopes to bring us intensely close-up photographs of bee anatomy.
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23 Ans Westra Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Red Rose (Flowers on my Mind series), 2017 (date printed) Pigment inks on Ilford Gold Fibre Glass 907 x 907 mm $6,700
Courtesy of the artist and Bowen Galleries “In the midst of winter, the flowers around begin to show us better times ahead. Slowly they unfurl a beauty all of their own. Captured at the start of better times, their intense colours come from patterns of light within the selected timeframe. To me, they represent a sheer, uplifting beauty of colour and movement.”—Ans Westra
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24 Denis O’Connor Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Other Angel, 2009 Diptych, sandblasted honey onyx 270 x 285 mm and 265 x 285 mm $4,000
Courtesy of the artist Denis O’Connor is one of New Zealand’s most established sculptors. He explores the importance of memory and its relevance in the present, using both personal and broad social histories. Collaborations with poets, architects and other artists have been a crucial component of his practice.
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25 James Ross Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Red Book, 2012 Silkscreen on Fabriano Classico paper, 17/30 560 x 760mm $1,350
Courtesy of the artist James Ross is a celebrated New Zealand abstract painter whose work mixes architectural, sculptural and painterly elements. Ross’s paintings are characterised by the use of multiple compositional elements, most notable of which are the interplay between organic motifs and rigid geometric forms; a use of vivid, often primary, colour; and an
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insistence on rejecting the traditional mode of painting as a canvas-based medium in favour of shaped structural supports, unconventional mounting angles and elliptical glass finishing.
26 Tony Lane Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Turquoise Necklace, 2015 Oil paint and gold leaf on gesso panel 630 x 1250 mm $14,000
Courtesy of the artist Tony Lane’s works emulate early Christian fresco artists dealing with symbols and images. Lane’s unmistakable paintings are deeply influenced by the traditions, symbols and motives of Christian art, especially Italian art. Lane takes us into the language of miracles, the archetypes and visions that speak of our dreams or our unconscious yearnings.
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27 Niki Hastings-McFall Title Flock, 2015 Medium Laser-cut perspex Size of work 500 x 600 mm Estimate $1,800 Courtesy of the artist and Whitespace Auckland Niki Hastings-McFall has a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Jewellery from MIT. Hastings-McFall expresses her unique identity by combining the influences of her Western and Pacific cultures in her art. Combining her palangi and Samoan heritage has been the driving force in her practice.
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28 Catherine Clayton-Smith Title Untitled, 2017 Medium Acrylic on canvas Size of work 510 x 565 mm Estimate $1,500 Courtesy of the artist and Bartley and Company Art Catherine Clayton-Smith holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the National Art School in Sydney, Australia. Clayton-Smith’s practice explores the boundaries between representation and abstraction. Her work investigates the way in which observation and memory interact, mirroring the way in which we interpret images through the combined spaces of the digital and the real.
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29 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Title You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in you mind, 2016 Medium Acrylic on paper Size of work 550 x 390 mm Estimate $1,500 Courtesy of the artist and Bartley and Company Ruth Thomas-Edmond graduated with a Masters from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2005. She has exhibited widely nationally and is known for her distinctive drawings painted on paper using thinly mixed acrylic.
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30 Seráphine Pick Title Medium Size of work Estimate
Day Dream, 2018 Oil on canvas 1050 x 910 mm $15,000
Courtesy of the artist and Hamish McKay Gallery Seráphine Pick graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ilam Fine Arts School at the University of Canterbury and is one of New Zealand’s best known painters. Seráphine is most widely recognised for her surrealist, dream-like works. Seráphine lives and works in Wellington.
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Absentee Bidding Art Auction In aid of the national music centre Thursday 13 September 2018 Absentee bidding is a method of remote participation for those who cannot attend the auction in person. The placing of an absentee bid entails the bidder specifying the maximum hammer price that they wish to pay for a given lot. This absentee bid will be executed by the auctioneer, who will bid on the bidder’s behalf until their maximum price is exceeded. The auctioneer will act in good faith for the absentee bidder and will endeavour to secure lots on which they bid for the lowest possible price. Alternative bids can be placed by placing the word “OR” between lot numbers. In the event of identical absentee bids, the earliest received will take precedence.
To the Auctioneer Please bid on my behalf at the national music centre Art Auction on 13 September 2018 for the lots detailed below. These bids are to be executed as low as permitted by other bids or reserves. I accept that the bids will be made in accordance with the terms and conditions of the auction as printed in the auction catalogue. Lot number
Description
Maximum bid price
Bidder’s details Full name: Address: Phone: Email: Credit card type and holder’s name: Credit card number: Expiry date: Signature: Date: This form should be completed and emailed to jill.robinson@vuw.ac.nz or posted to: Jill Robinson, Development Office, Victoria University of Wellington, Room HU308, Hunter Building, Kelburn Parade, Wellington, 6012. Registrations for absentee bidding must be received no later than 4 pm, Tuesday 11 September 2018. 38
General Terms and Conditions of the Auction These terms and conditions apply to all Bidders. Only registered Bidders may bid at the auction. Lots are offered and sold subject to the Seller’s reserve price being met. If an item does not meet its reserve price, it will be considered withdrawn and the underbidder will have a right of first negotiation with auction organisers as the Seller’s agent for a private sale, on terms and conditions determined by the Seller at their absolute discretion. By placing a bid, a Bidder is entering into an agreement to purchase the item at the offered price. The highest Bidder is to be the Purchaser, subject to any Seller’s reserve being reached. The auction is GST inclusive where applicable. No buyer’s premium will apply and so the final bid price is the total price a Purchaser will be required to pay. The Auctioneer has the right to: - refuse any bid - advance the bidding at their absolute discretion - place a reserve on any lot - place a bid on behalf of the seller - withdraw any lot from sale - require a successful bidder to pay forthwith the whole or any parts of the purchase price. In the event of any dispute as to the bidding in respect of any lot, that lot may be offered again at the discretion of the Auctioneer, whose decision shall be absolute and final. Subject to the exercise of the Auctioneer’s discretion, as described above, the sale contract between the Purchaser and Seller is concluded (on the striking of the Auctioneer’s hammer), whereupon the Purchaser becomes liable to pay the purchase price. Successful Bidders (i.e. Purchasers) are required to pay for purchases immediately on completion of a sale unless otherwise arranged. Credit cards, cheques, or cash will be accepted. Eftpos facilities will be available. Note that credit cards carry a 2 percent bank fee surcharge From the time of a lot being sold, it will become the responsibility of the Purchaser, who is required to remove it, at their expense, no later than Tuesday 18 September 2018. All lots are sold as shown and with all faults, imperfections and errors. It is the Bidder’s responsibility to inspect lots before purchase. The Auctioneer will have full discretion to (i) refuse any bidding or (ii) to withdraw any lot for sale without giving any reason. Neither Victoria University of Wellington, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auctioneer, nor the Seller are responsible for any errors in description of, or for the authenticity of, any lot or for any fault or defect in it, and they do not give any warranty whatsoever. Absentee bidding is available by filling out the enclosed form or online at www.victoria.ac.nz/absentee-bidding Phone bidding can be arranged for bids over $10,000. Please contact jill.robinson@vuw.ac.nz to register for phone bidding. Registrations for both absentee and phone bidding must be received no later than 4 pm Tuesday 11 September 2018.
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