A valuable collection of Ralph Hotere paintings which graced a hotel will go under the hammer next month.
The 13 artworks were installed in the Careys Bay Hotel between 2001 and 2005 after a $1.6 million refurbishment by then-owners National Business Review publisher Barry Colman and his late wife, Cushla Martini.
Mr Colman allowed the collection to stay at the hotel on loan after selling the business to Brian, Mary and Jo Kidston in February 2008.
The paintings were finally removed in August 2009 and installed in the new NBR offices in Auckland. Mr Colman sold the magazine earlier this year.
The collection covers Hotere's work from 1973-92 and includes the flagship Vive Aramoana, which Mr Colman bought in June 2002, for a then-record price for a work by a living New Zealand artist of $230,000.
Other works in the collection include lithographs, a 1989 multimedia work and a 1973 stagework design for a Patric Carey play at the Globe Theatre.
International Art Centre auctioneer Richard Thomson said he expected the most important work in the auction, Vive Aramoana, to sell for between $140,0000 and $160,000.
"We've been instructed to sell them all.
"We're trying to meet the market, although there probably hasn't been the demand for Hotere that there was 10 years ago. That said, he's still probably New Zealand's greatest living artist," Mr Thomson said.
"There are three or four lithographs and half a dozen paintings. They're all being sold separately and I'd estimate they will get between $300,000 and $400,000." Dunedin art historian Peter Entwisle said the collection contained some valuable pieces.
"It's a collection that Cushla [Martini] put together. This collection related specifically to the hotel and they had them put in and then she died," he said yesterday.
"There's some good stuff in it, all right. It will be interesting to see how it goes."
The auction will be in Auckland on November 22.
