A celebrated portrait by Charles Frederick Goldie of Ngāti Manawa tohunga, Wharekauri Tahuna, will be offered for sale at auction in Auckland on Tuesday.

It’s estimated the 1938 painting Thoughts of a Tohunga could fetch as much as $3.5 million.

International Art Centre director and auctioneer Richard Thomson said the oil was one of the artist’s most exceptional works, considered a “Goldie masterpiece” by art experts.

“Goldie’s importance in the history of Māori art cannot be over-stated and this is considered by many to be possibly the finest painting he ever produced.”

The Parnell auction house estimates the work could sell for $2.5 to $3.5m.

“Goldie is probably the most sought-after painter of Māori elders because [of] his art skill and ability, particularly with Māori subjects. His works are quite simply unmatched.

A glass-plate negative of artist Charles Goldie in his studio, digitally recreated as an NFT, reached a record price at auction.

“He regularly brings record prices and we believe this painting will become one of his most sought-after works. It is the finest portrait of a Māori elder we have seen in the many years we have been handling Goldie paintings.

“We have already had an incredibly wide interest in the work which Goldie painted in 1938, and that was before it was included in our catalogue.”

In 2016, descendents of Wharekauri Tahuna expressed dismay at the sale of a 1948 version of Thoughts of a Tohunga for $1.175m, distressed that they had not been told the painting was to be sold and fearful it would be taken overseas.

“This is all about money and investment and the question is, do our paintings, do our images, do they belong in that world? Not for us,” Ngāti Manawa elder Pem Bird told RNZ at the time.

“For us, Wharekauri is still a very much a live part of our memory, a part of a continuum we have from that world, the spiritual world, to today and to successive generations.

“The only place that he will have an authentic relationship is amongst his own here in Aotearoa.”

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage said at the time that the piece fell under the Protected Objects Act, meaning permission would be needed before the work could be taken out of Aotearoa, RNZ’s report said.

The process of deciding whether to grant permission involved seeking the opinions of experts, not whānau or iwi, the ministry spokesperson told RNZ.