- Sandra and Anthony Grant are selling their Sculptureum estate near Omaha for a minimum of $20 million.
- The 10.1ha property includes a gallery with works by Picasso, Rodin, and Warhol.
- The Grants are open to various sale arrangements and may stay involved if an investor joins.
The multi-million-dollar sculpture garden and gallery next to New Zealand's wealthiest beach town has hit the market for sale.
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After 20 years of hands-on work, art lovers Sandra and Anthony Grant are ready to hand over their beloved Sculptureum, on the outskirts of Omaha, to creative new owners.
The couple, who are barristers by profession, have welcomed at least 70,000 visitors through their immaculately presented gallery, which includes works by Picasso, Rodin and Andy Warhol.
The Grants are seeking buyers with a minimum of $20 million to invest in their 10.1ha estate at 38 and 40 Omaha Flats Road. However, buyers will need deeper pockets if they want to acquire the couple's art collection.
Anthony and Sandra Grants wanted to make their gallery fun: “We wanted to make it playful. We didn’t want it to be too serious. We wanted it to be an Aladdin’s Cave.” Photo / New Zealand Herald
The gallery includes works by Picasso and Warhol. Photo / Supplied
“There is probably about $3.5m worth of art,” Sandra told OneRoof. The collection, started by Anthony in the 1980s, is up to 800 works now, 400 of which the couple display at the Sculptureum.
“We have a few Andy Warhols. We don’t have millions and millions of dollars of these works. They are affordable.
“The [art] dealers know Anthony really well. He would get 20 to 30 emails a day from art dealers all around the world. He’s constantly on the lookout for interesting works.”
With their children now grown up and living in Sydney and London, the Grants have decided to sell up and spend more time travelling.
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They are open to a variety of arrangements beyond the straight sale of the property and the associated businesses, which include the award-winning restaurant Rothko. They told OneRoof they might sell each property individually or work with someone who wants to come in as an investor.
“We’re happy to stay involved with the project if an investor came along and wanted us to keep running it for a while,” Sandra said.
“But we’re happy to hand over the baton to a new purchaser who might have a different idea about what phase two looks like.”
The Grants opened the gates of the gallery in 2017 and are deeply enmeshed in its operation. Anthony still manages all the curation, rotating works and posting enthusiastically on social media about his favourite pieces.
"We've had a lot of fun out of doing what we've done. It is great for the soul seeing people come through our project and how everyone smiles and laughs. I have to tell you, law isn't always like that,” Sandra said, adding that they are already thinking about their next project, perhaps a smaller art-focused venture near their Queenstown holiday home.
Also up for grabs is the estate's award-winning restaurant, Rothko. Photo / Supplied
The 10ha-plus estate at 38 and 40 Omaha Flats Road is being pitched as a development opportunity. Photo / Supplied
Sandra told OneRoof that the couple bought 38 Omaha Flats Road in 2005 with the intention of sharing their art collection with the world. After combing the country, they picked a spot between Matakana and Omaha, on the northern fringes of Auckland's Rodney district.
“We always bought [art] with the intention that we wanted to share it with other people who perhaps didn't have the same benefits as us of having had the ability to travel all over the world and collect art," she said.
“We wanted people to be able to see all of the wonderful and diverse forms that art can take.”
After buying the 5.69ha hill property at 38 Omaha Flats Road for $1.29m, they realised that the flat land next door would be a better site for the gardens and galleries they envisaged, so they bought number 40 for $1.98m.
They converted the existing four-bedroom house to offices for the business (there are 22 staff who work across the gardens, event business, restaurant and galleries) and a one-bedroom flat for themselves and rolled up their sleeves. Their inspiration came from the hundreds of galleries they had seen on their global travels.
“We wanted to make it playful. We didn’t want it to be too serious. We wanted it to be an Aladdin’s Cave.”
The Grants spent $250,000 alone to recontour the land and replant the vines at 38 Omaha Flats Road, with their Oak Hill Vineyard now supplying up to 14,000 bottles a year to Rothko.
Listing agents Gina McMurdoch-Sontgen and Anthony Morsinkhof, from Forbes Global Properties, have highlighted the property's development opportunity, noting that the site’s zoning would allow the construction of accommodation or retirement units.
In their advertising, the agents said that adding accommodation would turn the Sulptureum into a “complete multi-day destination”.
Sandra added that the Sculptureum qualified as a business investment for foreign buyers coming into New Zealand under the Active Investor Plus (Golden) visa. “A buyer could build their own residence on site, have access to all of the attractions, but also run the business, so it would potentially tick both boxes,” she said.
McMurdoch-Sontgen told OneRoof that the property had attracted significant buyer interest. “We’re seeing engagement from a mix of local and international groups looking to build on what is already an exceptional, world-class offering and to the future potential around accommodation and retirement living,” she said.
- 38-40 Omaha Flats Road, Matakana, Auckland, is for sale, price on request
