Rebuilding Christchurch Business - fight on to save precious antiques

Earthquake damage in Tuam Street between High Street and Madras Street, Christchurch. Photo / Geoff Sloan

A Christchurch antiques dealer is appealing to authorities to help save his valuable collection before his CBD store is bulldozed.

Deric Blackler has been back into the Tuam Street shop several times since the February quake, and was allowed to remove a small amount of pieces on Friday.

He estimates that only 20 per cent of his Portobello Antiques stock was damaged.

Despite this, he says the New Zealand Army is preventing him removing any more items from the premises, and he is afraid the store will be demolished with no further attempt to salvage the items inside.

"I was told that once a bulldozer had pushed it over I could pick through the rubble," he said on his blog.

On Friday he was told the building had been demolished, but this information was incorrect.

However, a nearby Thai massage parlour was torn down, with workers being allowed to go into the building beforehand to remove items such as clothing, makeup and goldfish.

Blackler says he is annoyed that "crap from a massage parlour" was allowed to be salvaged when his "works of art and important bits and pieces" are still in danger of being destroyed.

He says a valuation several years ago gave him a figure of $300,000 to $400,000 for just the New Zealand antiques in the store.

"Firemen go into burning buildings, we're allowed to row across the Tasman, climb Mt Everest, do motor-racing or play rugby, but I'm not allowed to take responsibility for my own safety in an incident like this to do some good and save things," he says.

"It's very easy to look around and see that it isn't dangerous.

"There are people living in building with walls down just outside of the cordon that Civil Defence is controlling - if my shop was outside the cordon there would be no drama, I could just go in and get [the stock out]."

He blames a lack of organisation following the earthquake for his difficulties, which included almost being arrested on Friday when a policeman mistook him for a looter.

"There are protocols in place but they aren't being adhered to, and what the official point of view is is different to what's happening on the street," he says.

"I like to play by the rules, but it seems that if you have a friend who is a cop - if you have contacts - then you're sweet."

He worries that when the inner CBD cordons are relaxed tomorrow, he may have issues keeping his merchandise safe.

"They're opening up the city for people to walk through, so my shop will be wide open to anyone. There's nothing to reassure people that there will be security."

He has support from many art and history enthusiasts around the country.

Sian van Dyk, curator at Te Manawa museum, says Blackler is very well-known for having collected a large amount of New Zealand colonial furniture, and a lot of his antiques have been bought by museums in New Zealand and Australia.

Portobello Antiques is "not just your run-of-the-mill antiques", she says.

"[The items there have] real cultural value."

He is appealing to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Christopher Finlayson to help.

A message received from Finlayson's secretary, in response to a request for support, said "the most likely scenario unfortunately is there won't be a great deal we can do - but we'll do our best".

Crispin Howarth, Curator Pacific Arts at the National Gallery of Australia, said in a letter to Finlayson that "to not attempt to retrieve key objects in Blackler's possession at the property will mean objects of New Zealand's heritage will be wilfully destroyed."

"To do nothing is a neglectful option."