Maori art sets $2.3m record

A world record has been set at auction for a piece of Maori art, which fetched more than $2 million.

The auction was held overnight Wednesday at Sotheby's in Paris.

The Pou Whakairo statue was part of a collection that also included a cache of taonga, including a whalebone hand club, a wooden club, hei tiki, and wooden treasure box, along with Polynesian, Melanesian and African pieces.

The winning bid for the 39cm statue was 1,441,500 ($2.28 million).

Sotheby's tweeted that the price paid was a world record for its type.

It was one of only six similar statues and the rarest of its type, the Sotheby's website said.

The existence of the figure was not known until its appearance at auction in 1979 after it was discovered in the attic of a Scottish country house.

It's former owner said it was brought back to Scotland by a sea-faring ancestor in the early 1830s, according to the website.

Other pieces also sold for above their estimated value.

A hei tiki, which was estimated to reach between 70,000 and 100,000 was sold for 193,500.

A decorative Maori staff, which was estimated to sell for between 3000 and 5000, reached 10,625.

Yesterday an auction of a collection of rare Maori artefacts, owned by a former art adviser to Pablo Picasso's family, sparked a bidding war. A Maori staff, hand club and greenstone tiki fetched more than double their estimated prices at Sotheby's in New York.

Jeff Hobbs, oceanic art expert at Auckland auction house Webb's, said the sale "shows just how strong the market is right now across the board for Oceanic and African art".

The items belonged to Jan Krugier, a Geneva-based art dealer and collector who died in 2008.