The A+O auction is a rare chance to pick up a terrific work by Giovanni Intra. It’s one of a set shown in Wellington at Cubewell House in March 1993 when the Teststrip headed south to show their stuff.
A+O will have fingers crossed that there won’t be any drama to upset the rhythm of their sale like the kerfuffle that punctuated Webb’s last auction. Webb’s got the word that one of the Sunday papers was going to 'out' the Colin McCahon Elias painting that was a start turn of their offering as over-cooked conservation wise. It has been owned by Canterbury painter Doris Lusk and then by members of her family so it had an impeccable provenance. When we saw it at Webb’s exhibition in Wellington we (and everyone else we talked to) thought it looked just great. But what the hell would we all know? To the surprise of everyone in the auction rooms, it was removed from sale.
Images: top Giovanni Intra with his work from the Teststrip exhibition and bottom, the full suite of works including the one for sale at A+O second from the left
