Entire museum contents auctioned off

An auction of the entire contents of a Northland museum drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 400 people to Kerikeri.

Items under the hammer at Pete's Pioneer and Transport Museum on Saturday included classic and vintage cars, British motorcycles, and a huge collection of colonial era memorabilia.

Neil Campbell, of Webb's auction house, said 410 of the 450 lots were sold.

The highest prices paid, $37,000, were for a 1938 Dodge Brothers seven passenger limousine and a 1936 Studebaker bus.

Both went for well over their estimates of $13,000 to $18,000 for the Dodge and $10,000 to $20,000 for the bus. The next highest price was for the oldest car in the collection, a 1910 Sizaire Naudin, which sold for $36,000. That was below the estimate of $40,000 to $80,000.

A 1926 Dodge pick-up sold for $20,000, a 1926 Morris Cowley for $19,000 and a 1964 Ford Anglia Super 1200 for $9000.

Mr Campbell said it was rare for an entire museum to come up for auction. The last one Webb's had been associated with was the Wagner Museum at Houhora in the early 2000s.

The museum shut down six weeks ago after income from entry fees, a cafe and meeting venue was no longer enough to pay the bills. It was founded by Pete and Cecelia O'Dell and run by volunteers as a charitable trust.