KEY POINTS:
A painting from Colin McCahon's Northland series and one from Ralph Hotere's Aramoana series, each worth more than $250,000, were among 35 artworks destroyed in a courier-truck fire.
The fire was on State Highway 1 near Clinton, on July 10.
Niki Stewart, director of Milford House, the company exhibiting the painting, said the McCahon was worth "more than a quarter of a million dollars".
But other estimates value it at more than $400,000. Estimates of the value of the Hotere painting put it between $250,000 and $300,000.
Other works destroyed were Big Kiss by Dick Frizzell and a sculpture called Crater, by Neil Dawson.
Two pieces by Christchurch sculptor Graham Bennett were also lost.
Ms Stewart would not comment on any of the other works in the exhibition or their value, claiming it was a privacy issue.
The truck was travelling from Invercargill to Dunedin when the fire broke out.
It has been blamed on a short circuit in the battery of a mobility scooter being carried with the art.
Ms Stewart said it was usual for art works to be transported by truck, and what was put in the vehicle with the art was "beyond our experience and control".
Prime Minister Helen Clark, who is also Arts Minister, yesterday described the loss of the valuable New Zealand paintings as a tragedy for New Zealand's art world.
"I imagine that those who own them will be looking for some answers as to how this could possibly have happened".
Ms Stewart said assessors were working out Milford House's liability to the owners of the paintings.
Otago Daily Times, NZPA
