Charles the first

Has any artist ever been as kind to the media as C F Goldie? Over the last five years Stuff (the Fairfax media brand) has run around 34 stories on Goldie mostly in pairs of this-one-will-sell-for-a-lot-of-money followed by wow-we-were-right/wrong-this-one-did/didn’t-sell-for-a-lot-of-money. The rest of the story is usually an accumulating tale of sales from earlier Goldie stories ending with the mini-fact that the artist died in Remuera. That must have been a tough break.

Most of these stories are lightly rejigged media releases from the International Art Centre which is an Auckland-based dealer and auction company. Their director Richard Thomson who borders on being a PR genius really should get commission for the number of column inches he fills in a good year. Stuff's latest story is headed ‘Goldie fetches season high’ following a story a few days ago ‘Goldie paintings expected to fetch $1 million’. And for the record, they almost did. Of course these prices get big leg up from the hammer price via the buyers and sellers commissions that aren’t really reflected in the auction estimates.

For the record, over the last five years 56 Goldie paintings sold at auction. Thirty percent did not sell on the night, 13 were hammered down under the low estimate, three sold for a hammer price over $500,000 and seven for below $50,000. The rest mostly sell between $200,000 and 250,000.

Image: Goldie's for sale. Source for auction details: Artinfo