Hotelier Chris Parkin’s Artistic Legacy

Michael Tuffery’s Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) “nattily doubles as a barbecue and is part of a large collection of contemporary art amassed over a quarter of a century by business identity Chris Parkin, who’s crammed the lot – limited edition motorbikes, a gun in resin, vast canvases – into [the] popular [newly-renamed QT Museum Wellington] near the city’s waterfront,” Christine McCabe writes for The Australian.

Parkin sold the Museum Art Hotel to QT in 2015.

“[The] January rebranding is just the latest instalment in a lively story that began with Parkin moving the entire building on rails to its present Cable Street locale, ‘setting a land speed record for hotels’,” McCabe writes.

“Evolving from budget digs to informal art gallery and five-star hideaway, the former Museum Art Hotel was a well-loved institution popular with film director Peter Jackson’s ‘Wellywood’ cronies.

“It was no accident QT chose this particular hotel to launch its international portfolio. Parkin, who still lives in an apartment in the hotel, enthusiastically courted the group, going so far as to begin redecorating in QT style. ‘We identified QT very early on as the only brand that fitted with what were doing,’ he says.”

Original article by Christine McCabe, The Australian, May 6, 2017.