IT was used as a doorstop for years, propping up the entrance to an Easter Ross shed.

But the relic discovered by a community councillor turned out to be a marble bust by one of 18th-century Europe's most fashionable sculptors - and has now been valued at £1.4 million.

The bust of MP and landowner Sir John Gordon of Invergordon was carved by Edmé Bouchardon, a French sculptor who was a precursor of Neoclassicism. It was done while he studied in Rome where he undertook private commissions for the wealthy and important of Europe who were visiting the Eternal City.

Classed as a Highland Council asset, it was given an estimated value of around £250,000. It was stored at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery for safe keeping, and it remains there to this day.

But at the last meeting of the Highland Council's audit and scrutiny committee, councillors were told that the world-famous art brokers Sotheby's had inspected the authority's cultural assets and put a £1.4m price on the bust.

Cromarty Firth SNP councillor Maxine Smith, who is also vice-convener of the Highland Council, discovered the bust in the shed in 1998.

She told the Ross-shire Journal: "When I was on Invergordon community council, former councillor Andy Anderson told me that the provost's robes, chains and bust were somewhere and I should look for them.

"After many enquiries I asked for permission to look in a shed beside Balintore football pitch, and that's where they were. The bust was propping open the door and we couldn't lift it, it was so heavy."

Balintore, one of Easter Ross's three "seaboard villages", is about 15 miles by road from Invergordon. It is not clear why the bust had been taken there.

The name of Invergordon can be traced back to Sir John's father, Sir William Gordon.

The estate on which the town now stands was known for centuries as Inverbreakie. But the castle and estate were purchased by Sir William, a London banker, around the beginning of the 18th century. He proceeded to lay plans for the building of a town nearby.

Sir William also had political ambitions and represented Sutherland in five parliaments between 1708 and 1727, and the county, then called Cromarty-shire, in 1741-42.

In 1742 Gordon succeeded to his father's latter seat, attaching himself to the Prince of Wales, who in 1745 made him his secretary for Scotland.

Historian David Alston is an authority on the area, as well as being deputy leader of the Highland Council. He said: "Sir John was a big figure. His family represented new money, which had taken over an old Ross-shire estate.

"I think he was quite an irascible man who spent a lot of time falling out with people. He fought one of the biggest and most expensive legal cases of the 18th century over the Cromarty-shire seat, which was basically about vote-rigging. He lost."

An entry in the History of Parliament records: "Embittered and cantankerous, pursuing his personal and political opponents with violent abuse and frequent lawsuits, Gordon never succeeded in re-entering Parliament, but remained extremely active in the affairs of Ross and Cromarty, and in 1780 had the satisfaction of assisting Henry Dundas to secure the return for Ross-shire of his nephew John Mackenzie, Lord Macleod, whom he made his heir."

A sale of the bust seems unlikely. A council spokeswoman said: "Heritage assets are contained in various Common Good Accounts around the Highlands. The bust referred to in the report is Sir John Gordon of Invergordon, which rather than a Common Good asset is considered a Council Asset."