Portraits of NZ famous five go under the hammer to help Starship

Dick Frizzell with his painting of Sir Edmund Hillary, commissioned for the Herald's 150th birthday. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Dick Frizzell's five portrait paintings of inspiring New Zealanders commissioned for the Herald's 150th birthday will be auctioned for charity tomorrow night.

The images of Richie McCaw, Sir Edmund Hillary, Dame Whina Cooper, Kate Sheppard and Lord Ernest Rutherford will go under the hammer at Art+Object for the Starship National Air Ambulance service.

Frizzell's works adorned the cover of the 150th birthday edition of the

Herald

on November 13, and 50 limited-edition prints of a collage of all five portraits were sold on grabone.co.nz.

Auction house spokesman Ben Plumbly said the gouache on paper paintings that measure 29.5cm by 20cm were expected to fetch between $1500 and $3000 each. There had been widespread interest and everyone was very excited to see what happened tomorrow.

The prices were set low to allow more people to bid, he said.

"The funds are going to be donated to charity and ... those estimates are aimed to encourage more people to come along and bid on what are some great Frizzell works at what are not necessarily big prices."

The works are on display at Art+Object until the auction.

* The auction is at 6.30pm tomorrow at Art+Object, 3 Abbey St, Newton. Phone bidding forms from www.artandobject.co.nz to be scanned to info@artandobject.co.nz before 2pm tomorrow.