Credit: Whalan and Partners Ltd
It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but this humble hut on New Zealand’s South Island is causing quite a buzz as it heads to auction next month, because its walls are covered in artworks by one of the country’s most eminent painters, Bill Hammond.
The 42 sqm beach shack is located on Banks Peninsula and was a favourite painting spot for Hammond, who passed away in 2021 aged 74, and his wife. About a 13-minute walk from the beach, it’s surrounded by native bush and was a great source of inspiration for the media-shy artist.
Bill Hammond’s coastal art retreat for sale: rare opportunity to own a piece of New Zealand art history
Credit: Whalan and Partners Ltd
Credit: Whalan and Partners Ltd
Credit: Whalan and Partners Ltd
Credit: Whalan and Partners Ltd
Credit: Whalan and Partners Ltd
Hammond, a pioneer of the post-colonial Gothic movement in the late 1990s, was dubbed New Zealand’s ‘greatest living painter’ by actor Sam Neill, and described as one of the country’s ‘most influential artists’ by the New Zealand Herald. His artworks — which explored themes of environmentalism, social justice, and Aotearoa’s colonial history — often featured seabirds and marine imagery, and fetched impressive sums. His painting Melting Moments 1 sold for $1.715m NZD at auction in 2023 via Webb’s.
The humble Canterbury property would ordinarily have a valuation of around $430,000, according to OneRoof, but the fact that it’s essentially a livable Hammond artwork should push its price far higher. It’s being publicly auctioned on 22 May via Philippa Linton and Chris Mangels of Whalan and Partners Ltd.
The two-bedroom hut is being sold ‘as is’, and the walls and beams are covered in Hammond’s original paintings. These include ink drawings in the kitchen featuring his signature bird-headed figures and wave motifs, and in the living room, where the central wooden beam is adorned with a bright turquoise aquatic mural of a wave, thought to be influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai.
It sits on a discreet 817 sqm parcel of freehold land off the quiet Wainui Valley Road.
