A world-class sculpture park on Auckland’s Waiheke Island sold last month for more than $17.5 million, OneRoof can reveal.
Connells Bay Sculpture Park, which spans 13 hectares and is home to more than 40 large works by prominent Kiwi artists, had been placed quietly on the market by its owners, philanthropists Jo and John Gow.
The sale is not expected to settle until early 2025, and the Gows are still taking bookings to tour the park for the upcoming summer season.
OneRoof does not know why the Gows had decided to sell the park, which they have owned for 30 years, but OneRoof understands that they plan to leave some of the sculptures at the property for the new owner.
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New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Pene Milne, who brokered the deal, had published on her website that the Cowes Bay Road property had sold.
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When contacted by OneRoof, she declined to reveal the exact sale price or disclose who the buyer was. However, she did say she had done several several high-end deals on the eastern side of Waiheke Island for between $17.5m and $23m – one of which was the Gow property.
“People are talking about the amount of activity and desire of the east side of the island,” Milne told OneRoof.
“There are so many of these blocks on these beautiful, sheltered bays, they have northerly aspect and they’re bigger blocks – they have space around them and tranquillity.
“Many of them have helicopter landing consents, or you’re just a 25 or 30-minute drive from the Kennedy Bay car ferry.”
The new owner of Connells Bay Sculpture Park will get a private bay that looks out to Ponui Island and the Coromandel. The property also comes with a cluster of high-end cottages, which are rented out to guests, a jetty and two helipads.
Billy Connolly at a rugby game during one of his many visits to New Zealand. He fell in love with Connells Bay Sculpture Park. Photo / Getty Images
The property includes a private bay, a jetty and two helipads. Photo / Supplied
The Gows installed their first sculpture on the property more than 25 years ago and opened the park to the public in 2003. The coupled have work closely with the artists on their pieces and have acted as guides to visitors.
Scottish comedian Billy Connolly called the park one of the most beautiful and peaceful places he had ever visited. The property appeared in the 2005 TV show Billy Connolly’s World Tour of New Zealand and the sculpture-loving star even shipped home two pieces by Helensville sculptor Jeff Thomson, which were similar to ones he’d seen at the park.
The Gows are well known in arts circles. Their philanthropy was recognised in an Award for Patronage by the New Zealand Arts Foundation and their generosity has benefitted the Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland’s Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland Arts Festival, Indian Ink, Len Lye Foundation, Q Theatre, Silo Theatre, Sculpture on the Gulf and the NZ Venice Biennale Patrons Group, as well as many individual artists.
Guests can stay at one of the classic cottages on the property. Photo / Supplied
Connells Bay owners and philanthropists Jo and John Gow, shown here at the 2007 Auckland Art Fair, are well-known in arts circles, with their sculpture park featuring over 40 works. Photo / Bradley Ambrose
The sculpture park was their way of putting a lesser-known corner of Waiheke on the map, away from the busy suburban villages on the island’s city-side.
Milne has brokered some big deals on Waiheke Island in recent years, including $17.5m for a Sumich Chaplin-designed trophy house at Omaru Bay and $23m for a gated 13ha estate on Pikau Bay, also on Cowes Bay Road.
Milne said the sale and subsequent carve-up of a large property at Pikau Bay was indicative of the demand for bigger estates.
“Pikau Bay had a large Georgian-style pillared mansion and a whole peninsula, with a tennis court, swimming pool and shared gated access,” she said, adding that the owners have since subdivided some of the blocks into a 4.28ha site at 200 Cowes Bay Road, asking $4.85m, and a second 5.93ha section which is available for sale by negotiation.
A 13ha estate on Cowes Bay Road, Pikau Bay, that included a Georgian-style mansion, sold for $23m two years ago. Photo / Sup[plied
The Pikau Bay site has since been carved into smaller estates, one asking for $4.85m, the other selling for price by negotiation. Photo / Supplied
Both the sections, marketed by Milne and colleague Lisa Hopewell, have shared use of the jetty and boat ramps. Another site with an original run-down cottage on the water sold earlier for between $4m and $5m.
Milne said that big plots of land, like this and the 167ha estate recently sold by the Fenwick family as a conservation estate on Te Matuku Peninsula for $4.7m, were being sought by buyers seeking the privacy that this part of the island provided.
“It’s like a gated community, compared to the suburbs,” she said, adding that most buyers had another property in the city.
Milne said that the buyers were nearly all New Zealand-based, but she also had interest from Switzerland, Canada and both coasts of the United States. Most are what she calls “quietly looking” until the right place comes up.
- Click here to see more properties for sale on Waiheke Island
