A rare "masterpiece" of New Zealand art to be sold by auction next month has attracted huge interest from art investors. Renowned artist Evelyn Page was 74 when she painted the oil on canvas, entitled Nude in a Doorway. It was her last major nude before arthritis began to affect her painting. The painting was expected to sell for between $150,000 and $200,000 at an auction of important, early and rare New Zealand art at the International Art Centre in Auckland next month. But director Richard Thomson said that since the sale catalogue had been published there had been huge interest and it could sell for $250,000. Another rare painting, a water colour of Gallipoli after New Zealand and Australia troops landed in 1915, would sell for between $25,000 and $35,000, Mr Thomson said. The painting was by Horace Moore-Jones, the artist who did the famous painting, Simpson and his Donkey, of the Australian medic who brought wounded troops down from the front lines at Gallipoli.
NZPA