Academic uncovers museum mystery

This model of a carved Maori dwelling is one of four New Zealand artefacts at the centre of a police investigation. Photo / Otago Daily Times

A University of Otago art historian says he is shocked and feels "a sense of fascinated horror" after four New Zealand artefacts entrusted to a British museum turned up for sale on the open market.

"Our heritage is being trampled on ... I think it is rather extraordinary," Associate Professor Mark Stocker said yesterday.

He is one of a small team of New Zealand curators and academics who have played detective for more than a year to piece together a global artefacts puzzle.

The artefacts - a small bronze statue of the founder of Canterbury, John Robert Godley, a carved Maori pare or lintel dating from about 1880, a carved Maori panel and a small model of a carved Maori dwelling or pataka - were all given to a British museum that closed in 2002.

The institution passed on its collection of more than 11,000 items to the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol.

An academic with 30 years' experience and an authority on Victorian statues, Professor Stocker's involvement began in late 2009 when he was asked by the Christchurch Art Gallery for advice on whether the gallery should buy a Godley statuette on sale in a London antique shop for £35,000 ($72,000).

After consulting books and other specialists, he confirmed the statuette had been part of the Bristol museum's collection. The panel, pare and pataka, also in the shop, were also traced to the museum collection and were returned.

However, it was also discovered that the pare and the pataka were about to be auctioned at Auckland art dealership Dunbar Sloane in September last year.

Professor Stocker sought legal advice and told the police. The pataka was withdrawn from sale, but the lintel was auctioned and sold to a private buyer.

He said the items reaching the open market raised serious questions about how safe historical treasures entrusted to museum collections could be.

There were three possibilities about how the items came to be for sale, he said.

Someone may have stolen them to make money, they may have been sold by accident, or they may have been sold with permission.

The London antique dealer said he bought about 150 items for £115,000 and received receipts signed by the Bristol museum director Gareth Griffiths.

British newspapers have reported Mr Griffiths has resigned.

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum trust board, headed by Sir Neil Cossons, internationally respected heritage adviser and a frequent visitor to Dunedin, is auditing the collection to see what items are missing. Sir Neil said the board had authorised the sale of some low-value items.

British police are also investigating.

There was no way of knowing how many items had been sold or were on the market, Professor Stocker said.

"There has been talk of a carved rhinoceros horn worth tens of thousands of dollars, and an important North American landscape painting from the 19th century."

Publicity about the four New Zealand items would probably result in curators and art historians keeping a closer eye on sales and antique shops, he said.

He said he was particularly offended about the intended sale of Maori artefacts, which he said showed disrespect towards the technical and spiritual qualities Maori artists brought to their works.

- Otago Daily Times