O012 Athenic Guests 

My story is about a an art collective that I have been a member of since 1985. Ah I’ve um in 1985, when my, when um my child was oh goodness a toddler, I got to gather with 19 other women, and we decided that we would collect art as an investment. In those days, um um people will um, and sheer groups. They were colle um, buying and selling sheers and then of course the um sheer market collapsed in 87,’ ah put an end to that. And um we decided that we weren’t interested in that but were interested in collecting New Zealand art. And um the um the idea was that um in fact, we were one of the first groups that were, there was ah ah, there was a group businessmen just ahead of us, and that, one of the men was a lawyer and he came to us, ah and we were, with his help able to set up a constitution and we decided we would collect contemporary New Zealand art and because we all, um 20 of us had young children, this art needed to be hung on walls so that there was no damage. And um we had a very successful ten years and those the art collectors had to ah run for ten years for tax purposes. And then they had to be sold up. And um during that time we um ah not only collected art that was rotated um on a regular basis throughout our homes, we um got to speak to um the artist but um and variably come along and talk about the work that we had purchased, and ah perhaps the other thing that I should mention that in ten years we um ah broke up into um groups of um three I think, there was always three on our buying committee, and they could buy, use the kitty um I think we put in something like um oh I can’t really remember but was no more then a thousand dollars a year, so I mean there were twenty of us. So those girls had 20,000 dollars to spend, and every year, um the buyers would rotate so we had three one year, and so long as they bought within the constitution, that that it was up to what they bought. So the end of ten years, we had um well interestingly enough I think we ended up with maybe forty works. And um and then they came to how we are going to sell these works. By that time we had all fallen in love with them. And um we decided um that instead of going to public auction, we would have a private auction. And so we had each of the works um we got four evaluations from um respected members in the art community. Um they put ah um they valued each of the works. And then we took an average on those four um evaluations per piece, and averaged it out and that became reserve. And our chairperson at the time was a very um she was a business women and and she was very keen that we got a bit in board amongst ourselves, so she said we dropped that um reserve price by ten percent, which made it affordable and ah we put an um something like 5000 dollars say over that period if time. So she said, “ Theoretically, you’ve got 5000 dollars to spend. And then, you know, to get into the spirit of things, you know, you must get a better buy. And if you don’t want to um buy a work, all um you know obviously the money that was um um came in from the sale of the works would be debited up.” And so um perhaps ah back one step, um the works over the ten years had never come together. So um um ah were very fortunate that our gallery owner um gave us the use of gallery over a weekend. And on the Friday, all the works came together on the Friday afternoon. We hung them, and um we um ah that night, oh though that’s right, we, we, we hung them and then we decided we would we had an auctioneer all lined up and um he and he was a professional auctioneer, and the girls really got into the spirit of it and all of the sudden, the works were dispersed amongst us. Some girls went away with three works, and within their 5000 dollars, some people um bought one more expensive work, and put in a a few more dollars um to be able to pa um pay for it. And others um ah just tucked the money. I think it was only about two girls who decided they didn’t want to buy up that of their contribution. And then the next day, so then it was very successful and this um um just after the auction which was in the early part of the evening, we decided that we’d let the men in to see what we had been doing over the last ten years and these works were all hanging around the gallery, really fabulous.  And I, the men were quite impressed in what they saw, and then ah, I think we ended up having a dinner that night with our, with our partners. And um the next day, on the Saturday, we opened it up and invited um um family members, friends, to come and have a look at our art work. And um it was um a truly successful ten years. And it was so successful um that um one of the girls decided that the um, you know, why not just keep on going. Well it turned out of the um and um in the next ten years, there were fifteen of us, of which three came from that original group. And um and we um ranged an age group from twenty through to forty at the time. So it was quite a discrepancy in the age group. And um these girls, um were a lot of them were business girls and they wanted to make some, you know, they wanted it to be a real investment. And the first group we’d um covered our cost and made a few dollars. We didn’t make a lot of money but that really wasn’t the point. But the second ten years was to be a serious investment. So um the end of this ten years we went to public auction, and um we ah doubled our money over our ten year period, and um also were able to hold on to our most valuable work. And um and that was um we really um hit a milestone in the art world. Um this, we were known to be a very um successful group. And our timing I guess was what was um we were lucky, and that was sheer coincidence, we happened to go into the auction at a good time in the market. And um we were so excited about what had happened there, and my husband who was a um a banking finance lawyer so we would could never have gotten an investment like that in any other part of the market, like the men were quite taken it back. And so we then decided that because we had been such a cohesive group, we would um proceed, um and those who wanted to come um ah we wouldn’t take on any extras, of the fifteen of the second ten year period, we then became twelve, and we’re um ah almost at the end of our third decade, and we are hoping to be successful when we sell up in four more years. That’s the end of my story.