Tauranga woman 'profoundly' distressed after $14k worth of artwork goes missing

About $14,000 worth of artwork has vanished after an art gallery curator moved from Melbourne to Tauranga using a moving company.

Serena Bentley, now at Tauranga Art Gallery, says the disappearance is, from her perspective, "profoundly distressing and deeply confusing".

Serena Bentley. Photo / Mead Norton

However, the transport company says it has co-operated with Bentley and done an extensive investigation and has apologised for the artwork not being delivered with the rest of her belongings.

Bentley moved to Tauranga in April for a job at Tauranga Art Gallery using transport company Allied Moving Services to move her belongings.

But two "culturally significant" and "completely irreplaceable" paintings by Australian First Nations artists did not make it to her new home.

Bentley said one piece of artwork was by the late Senior Yolngu artist Nyapanyapa, which Bentley bought in 2015 for $3500.

Serena Bentley's artwork was by the late Senior Yolngu artist Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Photo / Supplied

A valuation earlier in August showed it was now worth AU$11,000 - or about NZ$12,000.

The second piece was an acrylic on canvas by Tatali Nangala, which Bentley said she paid AU$2000 (about NZ$2200) for in 2017. She did not have a revised valuation for this.

"Both of those artists are dead," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.

"It's completely irreplaceable culturally which is perhaps the most important issue and for me personally, financially. I can't own one of those works again."

She believed the transport company needed to "have some accountability for what they've done".

"I trusted them with my possessions and on a fundamental level, I deserve to know what happened to them ... It's so torturous to not know."

Bentley said a child's plastic trike, worth about $40, was also lost and has not yet been found. A third piece of artwork, a bird sculpture, was initially lost but then found by the moving company.

Bentley was originally from Auckland and spent the past 11 years in Melbourne. She moved to Tauranga with her partner and 3-year-old daughter for a new job as curator and exhibitions manager at Tauranga Art Gallery.

She paid for a specifically made crate for the Nyapanyapa Yunupingu artwork "to really protect that work".

"I would've brought it with me in my suitcase but it was just too big."

The artwork was inspected upon arrival at Customs in New Zealand because it was "made out of a tree".

She has the paperwork showing it was inspected and passed.

"It somehow got lost from that point."

Bentley has had email correspondence with Allied Moving Services, which the Bay of Plenty Times has sighted.

In the emails, the company advised Bentley to initiate an insurance claim and said it was "very sorry" it was unable to find the missing items. The company also said it would continue to try and find them.

One email from the company confirmed to Bentley the goods arrived safely at its depot but were not documented as leaving the depot.

Serena Bentley's second piece of missing artwork was by Tatali Nangala. Photo / Supplied

On August 15, Bentley went to the company's storage facility to try and find the works but was unsuccessful.

Bentley said Nyapanyapa Yunupingu was part of a group of artists called the Bark Ladies who were "totally innovative" and broke from tradition in terms of what they painted.

"Nyapanyapa was revolutionary because she was one of the first Yolngu artists to paint stories relating to her personal life."

Tatali Nangala was a "more traditional" artist, she said.

In response, Todd Morris from Allied Moving Services, Bay of Plenty and Waikato said
Allied Moving Services had co-operated with Bentley and done an "extensive investigation".

This included sharing documentation with Bentley, two depot searches, and a walk-through of the depot with Bentley where the process and locations were shown and explained to her.

"We have apologised to Serena for these items not being delivered with the rest of her goods and committed to reuniting her with her misplaced items as soon as possible.

"We are a local, family-owned business and have trusted, long-serving, honest and hardworking staff."