One of country's most well-known auction houses is in liquidation.

It follows the Australian owner of Mossgreen-Webb's being put into voluntary administration just before Christmas.

Melbourne-headquartered Mossgreen, which bought Webb's auction house in Parnell in 2015, owes A$12 million ($13.1m) to 400 creditors.

Administrators, James White, Andrew Sallway and Nicholas Martin of BDO in Australia, said last week that Mossgreen's assets amount to about A$3m and that they do not yet have details of any New Zealand creditors.

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Mossgreen-Webb's is now in liquidation, according to documents filed with the Companies Register yesterday.

Liquidators Andrew Bethell and Andrew McKay have yet to file their first report but are expected to by the end of this week.

When purchasing Webb's, chief executive Paul Sumner described Mossgreen as "Australia's largest and highest-grossing auction house and the most favoured avenue for collectors when they are selling complete collections".

"Since acquiring the former Webb's auction house in New Zealand, the company is now run as a trans-Tasman regional business," Mossgreen-Webb's website says.

Set up in the 1970s, Webb's has exhibited some of the country's most well-known artists, including works by Colin McCahon and Gottfried Lindauer.