It’s paintbrushes at 20 paces, with a local artist accusing the National Gallery of Australia of buying a “fraudulent” artwork, a charge the gallery — and those involved in the painting’s purchase — strongly deny.

The NGA acquired contemporary Gold Coast artist Scott Redford’s surf painting Black Palms/High Rise in mid-2012 for around $10,000, and wanted it to be included in a prestigious exhibition of Australian artwork at London’s Royal Academy of Arts later this year.

Redford told Crikey the painting, first produced at the turn of the millennium, was remade without his permission a decade ago after it had been damaged and declared it a “fake” and “fraudulent”. He has asked for the painting to be withdrawn from the Australia exhibition.