A NEW school extension partly paid for by a Victorian painting was being opened in Cwmbran today.

The £245,000 building at Llantarnam Comprehensive School was partly paid for from the proceeds of a painting called Daughters of Eve by GD Leslie which had hung in the school for many years and which was sold for £170,000 at auction.

Other money came from an efficiency drive at the school during which £20,000 a year was saved for the last five years.

The painting was originally bought by the school architect of the education committee as part of the fixtures and fittings in 1953 from Llanfair Grange near Abergavenny. It dates from 1883. In its place the school, built in 1954, has hung a reproduction of the original.

The new science block the painting helped pay for replaces a number of demountable classrooms that were becoming unfit to use. In the early 1990s two demountables provided additional accommodation but one was condemned while the new building was being prepared.

The new building provides a chemistry laboratory, physics room and a general classroom currently used for teaching English.

David Kitchen, head teacher at the school, said: "It's good to see the nice surprise of a valuable painting becoming a real asset to the pupils of the school."

Councillor John Turner, Torfaen council's executive member for education said: "When the value of the painting was discovered it was decided to re-invest the cash in a new teaching area. It is great to see the work completed and the children enjoying lessons in this new block."