Lord Nelson portrait rescued from rubbish bin

A potentially valuable portrait of Lord Nelson hanging in Nelson's new museum was salvaged from a council rubbish bin.

Tasman Bays Heritage Trust chief executive Wayne Marriott said he spotted the portrait in a rubbish skip during a Nelson City Council clear-out of the Trafalgar Centre in 2002.

He immediately suspected it was more than just "run of the mill dinky stuff", so he arranged for the painting's ownership to be transferred from the council to the museum, he said.

He would be liaising with art experts in England to confirm the find, but he suspected it could be one of only 40 Lord Nelson portraits painted by English painter Lemeul Francis Abbott.

"It would be of significant historic value if it is found to be an original," he said.

"To be perfectly honest I have no idea how much it might be worth."

The verification process will take between three and eight weeks.

An Abbott portrait of Nelson fetched £299,200 ($750,000) at auction at Sotheby's last month.

- nzpa