A MASTERPIECE which was owned by a Blackburn family for 150 years after being bought for 180 guineas is set to be auctioned for up to £1.2million.

The 6ft by 4ft painting entitled Pandemonium was the creation of Victorian biblical artist John Martin, dubbed "the super star of his day".

It was bought by Blackburn businessman George Whiteley in 1843 and took pride of place at his country estate The Woodlands, Blackburn, for many years.

Now, 160 years on, it is one of the most valuable pieces of a 361-strong collection worth £25million to be sold in a two-day Christie's auction.

Its owners are the multi-millionaire Forbes family of America, famous for publishing the Forbes financial magazine and an annual list of the richest people in America.

And the gilt-framed painting, which has been exhibited on loan around the world, was bought from a Bolton collector for the equivalent of £189.

It was passed down the generations of a complex family tree to be in the hands of Sir Hugo Baldwin Huntington-Whiteley, 78, a Gloucestershire landowner and former High Sheriff of Worcestershire, for more than forty years. Sir Hugo, who sold the painting in the early 1990s, remembers it well.

"Some liked it, some did not -- it is a very strange piece of work and was hanging on my wall for around forty years," he said.

"Manchester and Liverpool were very important cities in those days of cotton became all the range. I imagine my great grandfather made his money through the cotton industry and had his fingers in a lot of other pies at the same time!

"It was not like now, when you are taxed to the nines.

"Then the family moved down from Blackburn to Worcestershire to be closer to London." But Sir Hugo remains nonchalant about the picture's value and its original 19th Century sale price.

He said: "I don't think it was a big deal at that time. People commissioned works of art all the time. It was only worth £200 and I do not wish I had kept it."

Sir Hugo sold his paintings on because he could not afford the insurance. He refuses to say how much for.

"Art is the luck of the draw," he said. "It was not speculation. Some artists became famous and some did not. Some became fashionable and some did not."

Martin is also famous for Belshazzar's Feast, The Plains of Heaven and The Great Day of Wrath.

The painting then came into the hands of antiques guru Peter Nahum, known to millions for his expertise on the BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow, before eventually being bought by the Forbes family.

And knowing the North East artist John Martin, who he described as the "Princess Diana of his trade", he said the painting is selling at a snip of its worth if it goes under the hammer for £1.2million.

"It really is a wonderful piece of art. But in 1840 there were no film stars and the most famous super stars were artists.

"Martin was more famous than Turner. He was the Steven Speilberg of his day. The images that he produced were his apoplectic vision -- the great sublime images of heaven and hell.

Pandemonium is lot three in The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art by Christie's on February 19 and 20. Contact Christie's on 020 7389 2664.