The bigger picture

Seoul-based Kiwi businessman and avid art collector Adam Ballin plans to share some of his vast collection in a dedicated NZ gallery.

- SHARON STEPHENSON

Adam Ballin isn't sure which artwork he should be photographed with. The Bill Hammond oil painting, a 2m x 2.6m swirl of dark green and otherworldly bird/ human figures? Or the colourful work by Jacqueline Fahey that stretches across one wall of his Seoul home?

Alternatively, Ballin could go down the sculpture route and pose in front of Michael Parekōwhai's Ugly Doll, a large sculpture he commissioned from the Auckland artist in 2020. In the end, he chooses all three.

You may not have heard of Ballin, 45, but the former Cantabrian is one of the largest, if not the largest, private collectors of New Zealand art in the world. His 300-plus collection is split between his Christchurch home and the one in Seoul - an ultra-modern house on a hill overlooking the South Korean capital's suburb of Itaewan. It's a postcode you can claim only if you have a considerable number of zeros in your bank account. Ballin's neighbours include the scions of Korean companies Hyundai and Samsung, the founders of a national pharmacy chain, and an elderly couple who made their fortune selling pot noodles.

He built the house in 2020, a 1400sqm concrete and timber behemoth designed by architects Studio Nicholas Burns that's easy to get lost in. On one level, there's an indoor swimming pool, on another a wine cellar bigger than some Auckland apartments. Off the dining room, there's a study where Ballin's daughters, Sophia, 11, and Olivia, 9, do their homework under the gaze of a massive Dick Frizzell painting, Lawrence (2018).

Aside from the art, Ballin's pride and joy is the basement, home to multiple luxury vehicles, including an Aston Martin heritage racing car, a Rolls-Royce Phantom (usually out on the road only for staff weddings) and a rare Porsche 911.