Launceston Arts Society's senior advisor Carolyn Riley said she had seen Waves V by Brett Whiteley and thought it was stunning.

However, she said she wouldn't have thought it was necessarily his work due to the different style of the piece, compared to his other works.

READ MORE: Feast your eyes on long lost Brett Whiteley drawing

"[I'm] so thrilled they have found [the drawing]," she said.

Ms Riley said given the estimated 1.5 million objects in the museums collection, it was understandable QVMAG were working towards digitising the collection.

"It's just unfortunate it happened to be a Brett Whiteley that went missing," she said.

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Waves V was located in storage last week by QVMAG staff during the institution's collection audit.

Previous curator at QVMAG John McPhee said he was surprised the drawing went missing from the collection.

"I'm sure it was just misplaced," he said.

"It's good [the piece] is not missing [anymore], it's an important example of Whiteley's work at the time."

McPhee said the artwork was not one of Whiteley's major pieces, but would certainly be worth much more than what it was purchased for - $800.

"I'm so pleased it has been found," he said.

"And that the staff put in place a system whereby it could be found."

McPhee said it was "absolutely essential" for all public collections to be digitised and the collections should also be made a public resource on the museum's website.

Related: Waves V still missing from QVMAG collection

However, McPhee insisted that although QVMAG had previously stated Waves V had not been displayed at the art gallery, he had displayed it during his time there.

"The thing that annoys me is that [QVMAG] keep saying it was never on display and that is simply not true," he said.

A QVMAG spokesperson said their records do not show Waves V as being displayed in the gallery after entering the QVMAG collection in 1976.