Auckland Art Gallery is set to receive one of the most significant bequests in its history – $5 million worth of art from a Kiwi philanthropist. But its donor hopes they won’t be handed over for years.
Greg Moyle has a treasure trove of New Zealand 20th Century art and wants to find a forever home for the most important pieces in his collection after he dies.
The Kiwi philanthropist has pledged 20 pieces to the gallery, including pieces by Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere and John Pule.
But he doesn’t plan on handing it over any time soon.
“The bank have just extended me a 30-year loan on the farm so they might have to wait a long time. But I don’t see it as being morbid,” Moyle, a financial adviser and Auckland Councillor, says.
“It’s about creating a level of certainty. I don’t want these paintings to be broken up and sold. The concept of a promised gift is not only letting my family know this is my intention, so there’s not going to be a fight over who gets what, it’s also giving some certainty to the gallery.”
He was clear that he didn’t want to hobble the museum with art it didn’t want.
Auckland Art Gallery’s Julie Waite, a curator of New Zealand art, was awed by the scale of Moyle’s 2000 strong collection, built up over 50 years. But a bequest isn’t a straightforward transaction.
“It’s a very particular kind of partner dance,” she said. “It’s a delicate conversation and I think over time the number of works that were going to be part of the gift is actually growing.
“I think I was a bit tentative about the ask but it’s required a lot of discussion and thinking.”
The approach has been to build on the gallery’s own holdings – thinking about what was missing and then going from there.
The resulting gift is a who’s who of 20th century New Zealand paintings. As well as Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere and, John Pule, there’s Louise Henderson, Frances Hodgkins and Raymond McIntyre.
There are also special lesser known works. Like Jacqueline Fahey who painted riotous scenes of her family in the 1970s. It was radical at the time to paint scenes of domestic life in an artist’s family.
