Killer's art adorns Picton B&B

Monday, 20 August 2007

KILLER ART: Allan and Robyn Healey with the painting by Bassett Rd machine gun killer Ronald Jorgensen -which now hangs in a Picton B&B.

Buying a painting by a notorious murderer has led a Picton couple to an ex-con and meant a few mystery phone calls. DEE WILSON reports.

But their purchase on TradeMe of a painting by one of New Zealand's most notorious murderers Ronald Jorgensen has introduced them to people they'd probably not meet running their Picton B&B.

The couple bought the still life for $5000 on the auction site and travelled to Christchurch last week to pick it up.

Jorgensen is infamous for the Bassett Rd murders, known after the Remuera, Auckland, street where he and John Gillies shot dead two rival sly groggers with a machine gun in December 1963.

The pair were arrested, convicted and sentenced to life terms. After Jorgensen was freed on parole he lived in Kaikoura until 1984 when he disappeared. His car was found at the bottom of cliffs near the township but his body was never found. Unconfirmed sightings have put him in Perth, Western Australia, and Kumeu, west Auckland.

As it turns out, the Healeys' mission to get their painting proved almost as mysterious as the whereabouts of the artist.

Robyn Healey said after their successful bid became public, the phone calls began. 'We've had three, one female and two male … none leaving their name.

'One man swore a bit and was difficult to get rid of. He said he could verify if the painting was original. The other man said he was in jail at the same time as Jorgensen and congratulated us on our acquisition. The woman wondered if we knew that Gillies was also a painter.'

And while in Christchurch they met an ex-criminal face to face when they picked up the painting from the owner, a man who told them he had been in the cell next to 'Jorgie' in 1982.

'He told us he also painted but he was in art for art's sake, not like Jorgie who ran a good business selling his work to other criminals.

'He said Jorgie was a poseur who spent a lot of time building his body up in the gymnasium.'

As the story went, the two men exchanged paintings while in jail and that's the one now hanging in the Healeys' B&B Palm Haven. It was the last painting the criminal did before his release.

Merivale Fine Arts director Donald Goulter who verified the painting as a true Jorgensen said there had been keen interest in Jorgensen's art over time.

A Jorgensen self portrait sold at an auction of New Zealand and European art in Auckland in March 2005 for $9170, more than nine times the private owner's reserve. 'As time goes on Jorgensen is becoming more collectible,' Mr Goulter said.