- Dame Jenny Gibbs sold her Auckland mansion for an eight-figure sum to a local buyer.
- The home, designed by architect David Mitchell, was purpose-built for art and hosted numerous events.
- The buyer plans to upgrade the house, which features a triple-height gallery and custom designs.
New Zealand art collector and philanthropist Dame Jenny Gibbs has sold her striking Auckland mansion for an eight-figure sum.
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Ray White listing agent Ross Hawkins told OneRoof that the property was snapped up by a local who fell in love with its Paritai Drive location and its unique design, by renowned architect David Mitchell.
The buyer planned to upgrade the home and return it to its former glory, as built 31 years ago by the Gibbs family. “They absolutely love Mitchell’s architecture and design which was way ahead of its time,” Hawkins said.
The deal has been a long time coming. Dame Jenny first put the house on the market for sale in October 2022, and had engaged several different agents over the years to bring in a buyer.
Hawkins, who co-listed the property with colleague Ben Sceats, said the buyer “came to the table over the holiday period”.
Dame Jenny Gibbs at her home just after she was named in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Photo / Greg Bowker
Also attracting interest is Hawkins’ listing at 44 Glanville Terrace, in Parnell, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
He said interest at the upper end of the market had picked up after a quiet 2024. “There seems to be considerable money around locally and we are very busy with viewings and we expect this to increase through February and March as the more affluent drift back from their extended summer holidays.
“Next week I have two new listings in the Orakei area in the $10m to $15m range and I am getting great activity on a Parnell offering at 44 Glanville Terrace, which is in the $12m range.”
Dame Jenny took OneRoof on a tour of her Paritai Drive mansion in October last year and revealed that the house had been “built specifically for art”.
During the tour she pointed out many of the works she had collected, including paintings by Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere and Gretchen Albrecht, and, in the garden, a sculpture by Phil Price and Neil Dawson.
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The two enormous purpose-built art storage rooms, however, were empty. “It’s taken me 18 months to downsize. My children and adult grandchildren have quite good collections now,” Dame Jenny said.
The property, which has an RV of $12.75 million, was purpose-built for Dame Jenny and her then-husband, Alan Gibbs, in the late 1980s. They needed a new home, she said, because the one they were in was overflowing with art.
“We had art in the wardrobes, under the beds. I’m a compulsive art buyer. So this time I wanted a purpose-built home for it. We also had to have a water view, and architect David Mitchell to design it.”
The house, completed in 1991 by architect David Mitchell, was designed primarily as an art gallery. Photo / Alex Burton
Dame Jenny admitted to OneRoof that her house would likely appeal to only a handful of buyers. “It would be very difficult to adapt this to an ordinary family house,” she said. “We want someone to fall in love with it as it is. We’re shooting for that.”
The property has hosted orchestras, artists and opera singers during its lifetime. “I’ve had the Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand Opera and, more than anyone, Auckland Art Gallery. We would have held eight or 10 fundraising functions here a year, every year. We would have 100 or 120 people seated for dinner, or theatre-style seating for a concert. They were lovely functions,” Dame Jenny said.
The triple-height gallery, lit by clerestory windows below the roof, has the family living quarters suspended within the upper floors. It has a performance platform, acoustic baffles designed by the same expert who did Auckland City’s Aotea Centre and a professional lighting system.
The grand staircase sweeps down from the middle floor entry to the ground floor art gallery and function space. Photo / Alex Burton
It also has a guest bedroom suite (one of only three in the house), offices for the legion of young artists who worked for Dame Jenny cataloguing and managing her collections and a full catering kitchen.
Dame Jenny’s brief to Mitchell was to build an art gallery, with a living space tucked into it. The building had to be a piece of art in and of itself.
“We loved David’s designs, I loved working with him, loved him as an architect. Conceptually, he’s built a house surrounded by gallery space. He was sketching all the time we were talking, we discussed every inch of it,” she said, adding that in the late 1980s New Zealand was only just starting to bring in luxury materials from overseas, so she and Mitchell tracked those down.
As well as custom lighting, Mitchell, who died in 2018, sourced the array of marbles and granites lining the kitchen, offices, multiple bathrooms and flooring all through the house. He designed the built-in furniture, right down to the custom handles made of matching granites, and designed the woven bronze gates around the entry and the mosaic-clad reflecting pools that wind their way past (and into) the ground floor gallery and gardens.
The grounds of the Paritai Drive home are dotted with sculptures. Photo / Alex Burton
Dame Jenny said Mitchell went as far as designing a second underground gallery for the land they owned next door but that was never built. The neighbouring property remained as a block of apartments for visiting artists, guests and staff – and more storage for the art.
Dame Jenny told OneRoof that her favourite part of the house was the view of the gallery. Wherever you are in the house, you can see a work of art. “David believes in rooms that don’t reveal themselves immediately, that you walk through and not see everything at once,” she said.
“It was very exciting to move in. The whole house has done exactly what I hoped it would. As you pass through, you are alive in the art all the time.”
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