A Lindauer painting revealed to be a forgery will remain in the national heritage collection.
The Alexander Turnbull Library paid $75,000 for what it had identified as an original Gottfried Lindauer portrait of a Maori man.
A recent forensic investigation has revealed the painting is a forgery, and the matter has been referred to police.
Chief librarian Chris Szekely said the painting still had heritage value, but it was extremely disappointing to learn the painting was a fake.
He said the painting had a different type of research value to what the library originally envisaged.
