Art+Object’s final major art auction of 2020 will take place on November 24. Despite the disruptions to our calendar and the ensuing uncertainty around COVID-19, 2020 has proved to be another exceptionally strong year for the New Zealand art market. Our first auction of the year in this category realized fractionally under two million dollars in sales and our recent August auction of ‘Important Paintings and Contemporary Art’ resulted in a sale total of just over two million dollars. Both auctions witnessed strong bidding throughout with strong and record prices achieved for Richard Killeen, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Gretchen Albrecht, Don Binney, Dale Frank, Fiona Pardington, Rosalie Gascoigne, Robert Ellis, Damien Hirst, Peter Robinson, Bill Sutton and many more. Headlining the November auction is Theo Schoon’s magnificent four-panel ‘Mural’ from 1982 which was one of the centrepieces of the recent touring exhibition, ‘Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art’, which is presented to the market for the first time. Another highlight is a major painting by Colin McCahon from his 1962 ‘Northland’ series, repatriated from London for sale, along with works from the estate of Auckland artist couple John and June Ritchie.