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A rare "masterpiece" of New Zealand art to be sold by auction next month has attracted huge interest from art investors, even in a depressed economy, says the auction house.
Renowned artist Evelyn Page was 74 when she painted the oil on canvas, entitled Nude in a Doorway. It was her last major nude before arthritis began to affect her painting.
The painting was expected to sell for between $150,000 and $200,000 at an auction of important, early and rare New Zealand art at the International Art Centre in Auckland next month.
But director Richard Thomson said that since the sale catalogue had been published there had been huge interest and it could sell for $250,000.
"It is a New Zealand icon. It is the ultimate Evelyn Page."
The 90cm by 61cm painting was part of the estate of art critic and poet Bruce Mason.
"It is a masterpiece, an absolute masterpiece," Mr Thomson said.
Another rare painting, a water colour of Gallipoli after New Zealand and Australia troops landed in 1915, would sell for between $25,000 and $35,000, Mr Thomson said.
The painting was by Horace Moore-Jones, the artist who did the famous painting, Simpson and his Donkey, of the Australian medic who brought wounded troops down from the front lines at Gallipoli.
Many of Moore-Jones' Gallipoli paintings were bought by the Australian government and the few in private ownership were rarely offered for sale.
Two portraits by Charles Goldie had also attracted huge interest and one, Tumai Tawhiti, a chief of the Ngatihiwi Ngatitenaakau, was expected to bring $350,000.
The other, Ahinata Te Rangituatini (known as Kapi Kapi of Tuhourangi tribe in Rotorua) was expected to sell for between $180,000 and $240,000.
An 1860 Edwin Harris water colour, New Plymouth Under Siege, was expected to sell for up to $80,000.
"That's going to really turn heads among historians," said Mr Thomson.
Other works by Charles Blomfield, including paintings of the famed Pink and White Terraces which were destroyed in the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera, were being offered by the estate of his grandson, Alfred Charles Yeoman, who died in 1999.
They had never been put up for sale before. Two of the major works of the Terraces were expected to bring $35,000 each.
An 1882 water colour of the Bay of Islands from Paihia by Alfred Sharpe was expected to fetch up to $75,000.
Sir Edmund Hillary's 2002 pen drawing of him climbing Mt Everest in 1953 and a $5 note signed by Sir Ed over his image, would go for up to $4000.