Family gift valuable art bought for £1

Oscar Grant holds a copy of a 1915 Gallipoli painting the family has given to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Photo / Stephen Parker

A Rotorua family's cherished painting — snapped up for a pound in the 1950s — has been donated to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Oscar Grant, 95, donated his 1915 Gallipoli painting by Sapper Moore-Jones to the museum. The painting shows the hills at Gallipoli in World War I and features a lone soldier.

It was bought by his mother in the 1950s at an auction, where she paid a pound for it, he said.

The family thinks it is now probably worth about $200,000.

At the official presentation, Mr Grant said the auctioneer had tried hard to obtain more bids but was unable to, saying, "All right, I am going to knock it down to this lady for one pound, and you will all be sorry, because this painter will be famous one day".

Mr Grant said his mother bought it in memory of her younger brother, Oscar Dyson, a World War I soldier who served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli.

He was admitted to No17 General Hospital Alexandria and was then sent back to New Zealand, he said. He said after six months Mr Dyson rejoined the battalion and was killed in action.

The painting is now displayed in the entranceway to the Auckland War Memorial Museum's library.

"I've had it ever since my mother died but wanted to do something about it before I passed on," Mr Grant said.

He said he had three children and one painting, which made it "very difficult" to bequeath, so he decided to donate it to the museum.

His family fully approved, he said.

Mr Grant said rather than keeping it hidden away, it should be available for others to see as well.

"There were a lot of deaths and a lot of families who lost their sons at Gallipoli."