Kyla
07-06-2004, 07:57 PM
Kinder painting sold for $75,000
Jeremy Calvert, education reporter
06jul04
A KINDERGARTEN painting fetched a staggering $75,000 after a bidding war between two rich parents erupted at a school fundraising event.
The colourful abstract of children and animals - painted by a preschool class at St Catherine's school, in Toorak - became an object of fierce competition when the rivals decided they both wanted it.
Crazy John's mobile phone millionaire John Ilhan, who had two daughters at the school, confirmed the outlandish price was paid - but not by him. He pulled out when things "got seriously out of hand".
Mr Ilhan said his eldest daughter, whose classmates all contributed to the painting, had her heart set on taking it home.
Mr Ilhan described the work - 100cm by 70cm acrylic on canvas - as colourful and typical of infant art.
"There were a couple of children on it, a couple of animals and a flower, at least I think that's what they were," Mr Ilhan said. "Lots of blues and other colours."
Mr Ilhan said he was as surprised as anyone when the painting started generating interest worthy of masterpieces.
Experts say $75,000 would buy a classic by renowned artists Arthur Boyd, Norman Lindsay or Brett Whiteley.
"I just put a couple of hundred dollars down for it," Mr Ilhan said.
"Then one of the other parents . . . started bidding.
"I thought it was a joke, but she was trying to prove a point to me, I think," he said.
"She said her pockets were deeper than mine, and I said I don't really care, you are doing it for different reasons.
"I want the painting.
"When it kept going, I thought this lady . . . is just trying to prove a point."
Mr Ilhan thought he'd better stop the bidding war.
"So I stopped there, at around $75,000," he said.
Mr Ilhan said the painting became the big-ticket item at the auction, which was held at a large city hotel in 2002.
"It was a night when a whole lot of things were auctioned -- football jumpers, holidays, the whole lot," he said.
"But the painting became the biggest item of the night.
"It was unbelievable."
Mark Fraser, managing director of Sothebys, said the price paid put the work in the top echelon of Australian art.
"$75,000 is huge," he said.
"It is very much in the big league, and for that money you could buy works by every major artist in this country, from colonial times through to contemporary," he said.
"You could even buy one of Arthur Boyd's Wimmera landscapes for that price."
Even so, another group of emerging artists made almost as auspicious a debut in the art world -- paintings by Melbourne Zoo's Asian elephants fetched as much as $3500 each.
Despite missing out on the painting, Mr Ilhan was happy to see the school benefit from the bidding war, and said the school offered to paint for him a similar piece when he donated "significantly more" to the refurbishment of the school's early-learning centre.
The buyers of the original painting have since taken their children out of the school.
"I understand when they left she returned the painting to the school," Mr Ilhan said.
He said his daughters also attend a different school.
A spokeswoman for St Catherine's confirmed the painting had been returned, but would not allow the Herald Sun to photograph it.
"It's all about privacy, and I don't think that would be appropriate, being it was kids who painted it," she said.
Jeremy Calvert, education reporter
06jul04
A KINDERGARTEN painting fetched a staggering $75,000 after a bidding war between two rich parents erupted at a school fundraising event.
The colourful abstract of children and animals - painted by a preschool class at St Catherine's school, in Toorak - became an object of fierce competition when the rivals decided they both wanted it.
Crazy John's mobile phone millionaire John Ilhan, who had two daughters at the school, confirmed the outlandish price was paid - but not by him. He pulled out when things "got seriously out of hand".
Mr Ilhan said his eldest daughter, whose classmates all contributed to the painting, had her heart set on taking it home.
Mr Ilhan described the work - 100cm by 70cm acrylic on canvas - as colourful and typical of infant art.
"There were a couple of children on it, a couple of animals and a flower, at least I think that's what they were," Mr Ilhan said. "Lots of blues and other colours."
Mr Ilhan said he was as surprised as anyone when the painting started generating interest worthy of masterpieces.
Experts say $75,000 would buy a classic by renowned artists Arthur Boyd, Norman Lindsay or Brett Whiteley.
"I just put a couple of hundred dollars down for it," Mr Ilhan said.
"Then one of the other parents . . . started bidding.
"I thought it was a joke, but she was trying to prove a point to me, I think," he said.
"She said her pockets were deeper than mine, and I said I don't really care, you are doing it for different reasons.
"I want the painting.
"When it kept going, I thought this lady . . . is just trying to prove a point."
Mr Ilhan thought he'd better stop the bidding war.
"So I stopped there, at around $75,000," he said.
Mr Ilhan said the painting became the big-ticket item at the auction, which was held at a large city hotel in 2002.
"It was a night when a whole lot of things were auctioned -- football jumpers, holidays, the whole lot," he said.
"But the painting became the biggest item of the night.
"It was unbelievable."
Mark Fraser, managing director of Sothebys, said the price paid put the work in the top echelon of Australian art.
"$75,000 is huge," he said.
"It is very much in the big league, and for that money you could buy works by every major artist in this country, from colonial times through to contemporary," he said.
"You could even buy one of Arthur Boyd's Wimmera landscapes for that price."
Even so, another group of emerging artists made almost as auspicious a debut in the art world -- paintings by Melbourne Zoo's Asian elephants fetched as much as $3500 each.
Despite missing out on the painting, Mr Ilhan was happy to see the school benefit from the bidding war, and said the school offered to paint for him a similar piece when he donated "significantly more" to the refurbishment of the school's early-learning centre.
The buyers of the original painting have since taken their children out of the school.
"I understand when they left she returned the painting to the school," Mr Ilhan said.
He said his daughters also attend a different school.
A spokeswoman for St Catherine's confirmed the painting had been returned, but would not allow the Herald Sun to photograph it.
"It's all about privacy, and I don't think that would be appropriate, being it was kids who painted it," she said.