'Priceless' Maori portraits head to Europe gallery

Gottfried Lindauer, Wahanui Reihana Te Huatare, oil on canvas, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o T?maki, gift of Mr H E Partridge, 1915.

A collection of historic and "priceless" Maori portraits have left New Zealand for the first time in more than 100 years to be exhibited at a European art gallery.

The portraits by nineteenth century painter Gottfried Lindauer will form part of a major retrospective exhibition at the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic.

Pilsen, the 2015 European Capital of Culture, is also the birthplace of Lindauer, one of the nineteenth century's most prolific painters of Maori portraits.

After training at the Academy Fine Arts in Vienna, Lindauer emigrated to New Zealand in 1874 and travelled extensively, painting portraits.

The exhibition, which opens tomorrow and runs until September 20, includes 44 portraits from Auckland Art Gallery, four from Te Papa, and three from Czech Republic.

It also has 19 of Lindauer's early works from before he left for New Zealand in 1874, and Maori items sent back to the Naprstek Museum in Prague by Lindauer around 1900.

Director of The Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen Roman Musil said that the Lindauer exhibition is the most ambitious project the gallery has ever prepared.

"Lindauer's portraits of important Maori have the reputation of being something extraordinary," Mr Musil said.

Lindauer's spirit will be symbolically welcomed back to his birth city of Pilsen during a kawe mate ceremony (conveying the deceased) that will be held in The Gallery of West Bohemia by representatives of Haerewa, Auckland Art Gallery's Maori advisory group.

"It will undoubtedly be a spiritual and moving moment," said Mr Musil.

Auckland Art Gallery Director Rhana Devenport said that the Pilsen exhibition marks the continuation of a momentous journey for the taonga.

"These paintings have priceless cultural value for New Zealand and even more significance for the descendants of the sitters, the artist and his benefactor, as well as the city of Pilsen," said Ms Devenport.

"This journey presents a valuable opportunity to connect the portraits with the living relatives for whom they have particular resonance.

"It's not just about the history of these artworks, but also a chance to acknowledge their ongoing importance and living presence in a modern context."