Stolen Gottfried Lindauer painting appears for sale on dark web

The Gottfried Lindauer painting stolen from Art and Object Gallery in April has appeared for bitcoin auction on the dark web.

A Gottfried Lindauer painting stolen from a Parnell gallery in April this year has appeared for sale on the dark web for nearly NZ$1 million.

The anonymous seller who goes by the handle Diabolo, claimed the 133-year-old portrait of Chief Ngatai-Raure is "100% genuine" and that the painting would be shipped in a wooden box within four days of the auction closing, Wired reported on Thursday.

"Here you can bid on an TOP SECRET original Painting from Bohemian painter Gottfried Lindauer that was stolen in New Zealand, Auckland 2017," the listing said.

The listing has been online for three weeks and is running as a bitcoin auction and also has a buy-now price of nearly $1m.

At the time the Wired piece went live, the leading bid was 35.1129 bitcoin - about $417,000.

Managing director of the Art and Object gallery Hamish Coney told the Herald he had been sent screenshots of the dark web listing this week and he didn't really know what to make of it.

"If its genuine then I am pleased that it may still be in existence, but where it is and who's got it is the question."

"The fact that this particular item, which is New Zealand art taonga, should appear on the dark web is probably an indication that it's not kosher, it's dodgy, it's not right, and all of the things that you would assume via common sense probably apply here," Coney said.

"The image sent to me was literally a thumbnail size, so for me to draw any conclusions from what I have seen is not possible, whether its an image of the artwork in possession of someone who now has it – that I can't answer."

Thieves ram-raided the gallery in April and stole the 1884 paintings Chieftainess Ngatai-Raure and Chief Ngatai-Raure.

Police said at the time they believed three people were involved in the brazen heist.