An oil painting depicting a Maori elder fetched a record price at an auction on Tuesday, making it the most valuable artwork of its type in New Zealand history.
The painting by famous local artist Charles Frederick Goldie shows a portrait of Wharekauri Tahuna, a priest considered one of the last tattooed men of his generation.
The NZ$3.75 million ($2.2 million; $1.7 million) sale was also the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand, according to the auction house. auction.
It comes at a time of growing racial tensions in New Zealand over Māori rights, with the government recently introducing a bill that Māori say would undermine their rights.
Thoughts of a Tohunga was painted nine years before Goldie's death in 1947, with art critics believing it to be his best work.
It depicts the priest with a moko, or facial tattoo, and wearing a pendant known as a hei-tiki around his neck.
The sale, to an anonymous buyer, makes it the most valuable Maori portrait in the history of New Zealand art.
“Goldie was much loved by Maori during his lifetime, (he) lived in Auckland and met his subjects,” Richard Thomson, director of the International Art Center, told the BBC, adding that it was the first time the painting had been was put up for sale at 33.
“New Zealanders have an affinity with their history and Goldie portraits have always been sought after,” he said, adding that since 2016 his auction house had sold 13 Goldie paintings, with buyers paying each time more than a million New Zealand dollars.
Wharekauri Tahuna was one of Goldie's favorite subjects and featured in many of her works.
Māori make up around 18% of New Zealand's population, although many remain disadvantaged compared to the general population when assessed using markers such as health status, income household, education levels, and incarceration and mortality rates. There remains a seven-year gap in life expectancy.
Last week, a political party sought to pass a bill that would reinterpret the country's founding treaty with the Maori people, known as the Treaty of Waitangi.
Thousands of people participated in a nine-day march against the bill, which ultimately did not pass.
