$5 painting worth $7000

A bargain hunter has struck artistic gold after buying a $5 oil painting in a "nasty old frame" from a Whangarei charity shop.

Swedish artist Edward Fristrom's A Breezy Day at Seatoun, Wellington was bought for $5 at the Whangarei Allsortz Hospice Shop and is now set to fetch more than $7000 in an online auction.

The shop raises money for North Haven Hospice, which is now reviewing its art assessment policy after the valuable painting slipped under its radar.

It is understood a Whangarei woman bought the painting and will donate some of the takings to the North Haven Hospice in Tikipunga.

The painting was assessed by Whangarei Art Museum director Scott Pothan, who was astounded by the discovery.

"When I saw it coming through the door my eyes lit up. It was in a nasty old frame but it's a jewel.

"She knew what she had found but when I told her what it was worth she was a bit shocked and frightened."

Pothan says he is a "regular haunter" of the hospice store and has also discovered some gems. "I paid $20 for a Natalie Findlay piece that's probably worth $500," he said.

North Haven Hospice general manager Helen Blaxland said the hospice team had to raise $1.3 million per year. The amount that could have been made from the Fristrom painting would have been helpful, she said.

"The lady who usually prices our art and antiques has been on leave and, unless staff are given an indication of an item's worth, it's left up to them to determine a price," she said.

"When you're relying on the goodwill of volunteers, inadvertently things may be sold for an absolute bargain. Obviously, this one slipped through."

Blaxland said if the hospice had been aware of the painting's potential worth, it would have been included in a hospice art auction.

Instead, the painting is up for auction on the International Art Centre's website and director Richard Thomson says it is one of the best Fristroms they have received in more than two years. "We've told interested buyers the story behind it," he said.

Pothan said Fristrom's works were considered important as he was one of a few impressionist artists in New Zealand at the turn of the 20th century.

He said he would be happy to help North Haven Hospice value artworks.

Expensive Kiwi art

How the Whangarei artwork compares with others

* Colin McCahon's Urewera Mural is valued at $1.2 million.

* Charles Goldie's A Noble Relic of a Noble Race, an oil painting portrait of Ngati Manawa and Tuhoe priest and chief Wharekauri Tahuna, sold at auction last August for $350,000.

* Philip Clairmont's Figure Falling from Chair sold for $31,000 at auction in January 2009.Richard Killeen's Carrier Ant (a work of 36 aluminium pieces) sold for $25,000 at auction in January 2009.

* Colin McCahon's lithograph Moby Dick is Sighted off Muriwai sold for $7200 at auction in January 2009.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE