Spark Foundation Auction held 1 September Tue, 20 Sep 2022

International Art Centre was delighted to partner with the Spark Foundation, offering it's entire collection by auction earlier this month. The foundations commitment to a 5% resale royalty on the hammer price saw $26,595 paid to the living artists whose works fetched $5,000 or more. This landmark auction saw 100% of the offering sold, resulting in a sale total of $1.047 million.

Top price of the auction went to Gretchen Albrechts 'Inlet, West Coast', 1974 which set a new record $165,000 plus premium, eclipsing our previous $110,000 plus buyers premium record for an Albrecht painting set in April 2022.

A full list of sale results are available here

Andrew Pirie, Chair for the Spark Foundation Board wrote the following forward in the catalogue.

Primarily during the 1990s and 2000s, Spark New Zealand (then known as Telecom) supported the Aotearoa art community by investing in an impressive collection of works by some of our nation's most gifted artists.

In 2011, this art collection was gifted by the company to a dedicated Art Trust, with the works remaining on display within Spark premises. In 2017, as part of a rationalisation of charitable foundations associated with Spark, the Spark Art Trust was dissolved and the art collection was transferred to the Spark Foundation.

Spark Foundation's philanthropic mission is to accelerate towards digital equity. We are proud of our partnerships across Aotearoa that are making a real difference in ensuring the next generation of thinkers, our tamariki and rangitahi, have the digital access we take for granted, and are inspired by the opportunities the digital future presents.

Although the Spark Foundation Trustees were proud to become kaitiaki of the art collection, we have always kept an open mind towards selling the Collection and investing the proceeds into supporting our digital equity programme. A few years ago, the Foundation sold one significant work and we have now decided to offer the rest of the art collection for auction.

Over the decades, the Spark art collection has proudly held an important place in New Zealand's corporate art landscape. But we believe the time is right to move from on having valuable artworks on office walls, to be enjoyed by a relatively privileged few working at Spark. And in doing so, help fulfil our vision that no New Zealander is left behind in a digital world.

Ngā mihi nui Andrew Pirie Chair, Spark Foundation Board