BELFAST City Council has spent more than £100,000 of ratepayers' cash on painted portraits of its lord mayors.
Since 2005 the council has spent a total of £104,650 on the portraits, which public spending campaigners have branded a waste of money.
Belfast is the only council in Northern Ireland that routinely pays for painted portraits of its civic leaders.
Nine mayoral portraits were commissioned by Belfast City Council over the past decade, with the artists personally chosen by each lord mayor.
The most expensive portrait was of 2010-11 mayor Pat Convery of the SDLP, which was created by artist John Keane and cost £15,150.
Sinn Féin councillor Niall Ó Donnghaile, who was lord mayor the following year, had the least expensive portrait at a cost of £7,000.
Dia chakravarty, political director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said ratepayers will be "astonished" by the spending.
"When hard-pressed families are struggling to pay bills and councils up and down the country are having to find necessary savings, residents are bound to ask if the council has got its priorities right," she said.
"People expect their rates to pay for necessary services, not to be wasted on expensive paintings."
The figures were obtained by The Irish News through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
In its FOI response Belfast City Council said: "Commissioning portraits of lord mayors is a long-standing tradition that dates back to the 1850s and has provided the council with both a valuable and historic art collection and an asset that is popular with citizens and tourists alike.
"There is an allowance available for each lord mayor to add to this collection."
Two councils, Lisburn City and Castlereagh council and Causeway Coast and Glens, did not respond to the FOI.
Other councils tend to commission photographs of mayors and other elected councillors.
The only other council that said it commissioned a mayoral portrait was Derry City Council of Sinn Féin Gearóid ó hEára, who was mayor in 2004-05.
The portrait was created by Joe Campbell Art and cost ratepayers £600.
In 2014 The Irish News revealed Stormont has spent almost £82,000 on painted portraits of MLAs in what critics branded "an expensive vanity project".
Ian Paisley was depicted in a 2010 portrait purchased for £5,000 – despite the former DUP first minister already having a £10,000 portrait at Westminster.
The largest amount spent on a single piece depicting politicians was £45,000 on 'The House will Divide' in 2003, which depicts MLAs elected during the assembly's first mandate.
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:: Belfast mayors and the cost of portraits
Wallace Browne (DUP), 2005-06, portrait by Israel Zohar – £9,000
Pat McCarthy (SDLP), 2006-07, by Mick O'Dea – £9,000
Tom Hartley (Sinn Féin), 2008-09, by John B Vallely – £12,500
Naomi Long (Alliance), 2009-10, by Nicola Russell – £13,000
Pat Convery (SDLP), 2010-11, by John Keane – £15,150
Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Féin), 2011-12, by Danny Devenny – £7,000
Gavin Robinson (DUP), 2012-13, by Ross Wilson – £15,000
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (Sinn Féin), 2013/14, by Robert Ballagh – £14,000
Nichola Mallon (SDLP), 2014-15, by Ian Cumberland – £10,000
