Once-in-a-lifetime Find Comes Home

Five years of detective work have led to the return home of a 160-year-old painting starring New Plymouth. The watercolour by Sir Francis Dillon Bell was gifted to Puke Ariki on 8 November, 2005, by the TSB Community Trust, which brought it for $225,000. The watercolour is painted from Mount Bryon Reserve, on Octavious Place. It captures Mount Eliot, where Puke Ariki now stands, overlooking the mouth of the Huatoki Stream.

Auckland art dealer John Gow found the panorama - and five other Bell pictures - after some serious detective work. It all began when the John Leech Gallery director heard that some important topographic paintings of New Zealand had been sold in a country sale just out of Paris, France. "They went for an awful lot of money at this auction." But nobody knew the identity of the buyer, believed to be an old master dealer whose wife had Kiwi connections. "We spent five years tracking him down and finally got to him." Mr Gow then convinced the owner to allow the Auckland gallery to sell the six unframed works for him.

The paintings had been kept in a vault in the United Kingdom. "I was just amazed by their condition and how important they were, particularly the panorama. For their age, they are just extraordinary." The other pictures were also of New Zealand but only the panorama was of Taranaki.

During a phone conversation with Taranaki Festival of the Arts director Roger King, the subject of New Plymouth picture came up. "He said, 'I think this should come back to Taranaki' and I said 'I'd love it to', but I wasn't aware it was possible. At that stage another museum had heard of it and they were keen" Mr Gow said. "I said, 'Look, Taranaki can have first crack as far as I'm concerned'."

From there, the TSB Community Trust stepped in and a sale was negotiated. "It's a great story" Mr Gow said. "It's kind of nice because it occurred in the year where we [the John Leech Gallery] are celebrating our 150th year of being in business in New Zealand. That panorama is one of the most significant 19th Century images that we've handled from a point of view of the history of New Zealand."

Mr Gow said the painting was a once-in-a-lifetime find. "History can be changed by discoveries like this."