click here to enlarge image

title Art auction a success publication TNT Magazine, London description Article date 11:09:2006 painting It's a sitting duck Two pieces, one by Anna Leary and one by Mark Olsen, sold for more than £1,000 each. "Overall we were really pleased to be able to raise so much money for such a good cause," said NZ Society spokesperson Helen Campbell. When the final hammer went down at the New Zealand Society's recent charity art auction, there were smiles all around. All of the artworks, which had been donated by Kiwi artists, were sold, raising more than £7,000 for a resettlement programme for an endangered New Zealand duck. Two pieces, one by Anna Leary and one by Mark Olsen, sold for more than £1,000 each. "Overall we were really pleased to be able to raise so much money for such a good cause," said NZ Society spokesperson Helen Campbell. New Zealand High Commissioner Jonathon Hunt and Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon were among the 150 guests who gathered at Marlborough House for the auction and gourmet barbecue. New Zealand's Minister of Conservation Chris Carter also sent his pesonal thanks to the society for arranging the event. Peter McClelland, the recovery group leader for the project to resettle the Campbell Island teal, a duck once thought to be extinct, said the funds raised would mean it was now possible to hold a monitoring trip in December to confirm the birds had established a viable population on the island. "The recovery group in very grateful to the NZ Society for its support in helping to both save the world's most endangered duck and in restoring an important part of the Campbell Island ecosystem," he said.