The Crisson & Hind African Gallery in Hamilton is preparing to shut its doors after 27 years in business.

Mike Hind, son of founder, the late Colin “Dusty” Hind, said it was a hard decision to close the Zimbabwean sculptures shop.

He has been running the gallery ever since his father died in February 2025, but said continuing was unrealistic.

“We love it, but it was just too much,” he said. “I have a career. As a family, we are very bummed that we have to do this.”

The gallery upstairs at 1 Queen Street is holding a clearance sale, with discounts of 75 per cent. Prices range from about $100 to several thousand dollars.

“We have a few hundred pieces to sell, which is why we are going so aggressively with the clearance sale,” Mr Hind said. “The aim is to sell as much of the collection as possible before closing.”

Mr Hind explained that his father bought the works directly from Zimbabwean sculptors at prices set by the artists.

His father went frequently to Zimbabwe, with Mr Hind travelling with him at least three times. He remembered going with his father to mines and quarries in Zimbabwe to buy stone for the artists, collecting it and trucking it to the artists’ workshops.

For example, he went with his father to collect a type of stone called Kwekwe fruit serpentine, only found in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe.

“It is in a space about the size of two football fields,” Mr Hind said. “It was deep in the bush. These guys would go with giant poles and dig out boulders and somehow get them into the back of the truck. I have no idea how they did it.”

Because of hyperinflation, Mr Hind recalled sometimes buying sculptures with wheelbarrows full of Zimbabwe currency.

Many of the artists they worked with were devastated when they heard that Dusty Hind had died.

“They nicknamed him ‘Sekuru’, which means Uncle,” Mr Hind said. “One of our artists, Kennedy Zano, named his son ‘Dustin’, after my dad and made him godfather.”

Dusty Hind founded and ran Aardvark Advertising Agency for many years before retiring in 1998.

“After that he called me at 9am every day,” Mr Hind remembered. “He would say, ‘I’m going golfing today’, or ‘I’m going fishing today’. After two weeks of this he called me again. I was in no mood. I said ‘What? What are you doing today?’ He said ‘I don’t know, but I need to find something to do because I’m going crazy’.”

Opening the Crisson & Hind African Gallery was the answer.

Mike Hind said in recent years there have been fewer people browsing the outlet.

“Customers are buying less sculpture and downsizing their homes,” Mr Hind said. “Shipping large works can also add hundreds of dollars to a purchase.”

The shop is open Monday to Saturday. People are encouraged to see the sculptures while the sale continues.

“We wish we could keep going,” Mr Hind said. “It’s just not something that we can do.”

The Hind family plan to close the business permanently in January.

• For more information, seecrissonandhind.com