Rare Gordon Walters koru painting fetches over $600,000 at auction

A rare Gordon Walters painting fetched a record price at auction. Photo / Supplied

A sought-after Gordon Walters painting has fetched a record price at auction this evening.

The black-and-white koru artwork by the late painter sold for $619,820 under the hammer at Art+Object in central Auckland.

Art+Object director Ben Plumbly said he was delighted at the outcome.

"It was an amazing painting and it really deserved to go well," he said.

"It was a pretty special work."

The last time the gallery sold a Walters work was in 2013, when it fetched $430,000.

Only one other Walters black-and-white koru painting has ever been sold by the gallery.

"There's just not many of them around," Plumbly said.

"I think its the only one that I can recall as good as this that's been at auction in the last 20 years."

Measuring at 1220mm by 943mm, the 1977 artwork has been held by a private collector in Auckland for the past 20 years.

It was a successful evening for Art+Object, selling about $1.4 million worth of contemporary New Zealand art.