NZ museum pieces on open market

British police are investigating how historic artefacts, including pieces gifted from New Zealand, were put up for sale when they should have been in the care of a museum.

One of the pieces, a bronze statuette of Canterbury founder John Robert Godley and gifted by the people of Christchurch to a British museum, was for sale in London art dealer's shop window for £35,000 (NZ$72,500) and even offered back to the Christchurch Art Gallery for a "considerable" price.

Otago University art historian Associate Professor Mark Stocker, an expert on Victorian sculpture, said that in 2009 the gallery asked him for advice on the statuette.

He and other arts professionals discovered it was donated by the people of Christchurch in 1939 to the Imperial Institute and eventually found its way to the new British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol (BCEM), west of London.

It turned out to be one of a number of New Zealand art treasures and taonga no longer held at the museum, including an 1880s Rotorua/Ngai Tarawhai carved pare or lintel, which was found up for auction at Dunbar Sloane's in Auckland in September last year, he said.

Police were informed but the pare sale went through and the lintel was sold to a private buyer.

Another item, a miniature pataka carved by Jacob Heberley, the gift of premier Richard Seddon and his Cabinet to King Edward VII on his Coronation in 1902, was "hastily withdrawn" from a dealer's shop and returned to its rightful owners before it could be sold, Dr Stocker said.

He said he had a sense of "fascinated horror" at the debacle and the cases raised serious questions about the safety of historical treasures entrusted to museum collections.

"I was offended for the sake of Rotorua and Te Ati Awa Maori because of the qualities they have brought both technically and spiritually to their carvings.

"Those qualities have been disrespected with the sale of the carved pare and the attempted sale of the pataka."

The Godley statuette represented the gift of the Canterbury people and it was being offered back to them at a price, he said.

"Our heritage is being trampled on."

A spokeswoman for the gallery said the offer was not taken up.

Last month the Guardian newspaper reported the BCEM had dismissed its director Gareth Griffiths after three or four items were said to be missing and police were in the early stages of an inquiry into alleged museum thefts.

It was carrying out an audit of about 50,000 items in the museum's collection.

Dr Griffiths strongly denied profiting from the disposal of any objects and disagreed he has been dismissed, arguing that employment rules had not been followed.

His lawyer said any objects were disposed of with the knowledge and agreement of the museum trustees and the receipts fully audited.

Chairman of the BCEM, Sir Neil Cossons, denied claims that a 19th-century Maori wooden panel and the Godley statuette were among items missing.

- NZPA