Thieves took sacred image in museum painting heist

By TONY WALL

Toko Renata Te Taniwha's livingroom wall is covered in pictures of his ancestors.

One photograph in particular has great significance. It shows Hera Puna, warrior wife of chief Hori Ngakapa, who fought valiantly alongside her husband against the British in the battle of Rangiriri in 1863.

The couple are revered by the Ngati Whanaunga tribe of Hauraki. To Mr Renata, of Manaia on the Coromandel Peninsula, their images are sacred.

That is why Tuesday's theft from the Auckland Museum of a Charles Goldie painting of Hera Puna has deeply shocked him and other members of the tribe.

Goldie finished the painting in 1917, when Hera Puna was a kuia (elder), and titled it Memories of a Heroine.

The 23cm by 18cm painting first went on display at the Auckland Society of Arts in 1918. The price was just 17 guineas.

Eighty-two years later, experts suggest the painting would fetch $65,000 at auction, but Mr Renata said that to him, the image was priceless.

"You can't put a money value on it."

He was scathing of the museum's security.

"The theft shocked me because of the high esteem we hold our kuia in.

"All I can say is the museum is not a good custodian of those taonga [treasures] to allow this to happen - surely security must be better than it is."

Mr Renata said that although the painting was bequeathed to the museum by an elderly Auckland woman, the proper place for pictures of Maori ancestors was on the marae.

Police have said the painting might have been stolen by Maori for political or personal reasons, but Mr Renata had his doubts.

"It would take a very brave Maori to take a painting of a chief or kuia because of the repercussions and the perceived bad luck."

Museum spokeswoman Jude Davidson defended the museum's security, which included surveillance cameras, plate-glass, and roving attendants.

"We take security very seriously, but we want to make the paintings accessible to the people of Auckland and New Zealand, who own them."

She said there would be a complete review of security in the wake of the theft.

Meanwhile, police believe a man and woman carried out the daylight heist.

Detective Constable James Watson, of Auckland CIB, said cleaners found the painting's frame stuffed behind a toilet in the women's washrooms near the museum entrance yesterday morning.

"We have to keep an open mind but it was a busy time of day and a man going into the women's toilets would have been noticed."

Detective Constable Watson said a blurry image of a man had been captured by the security camera that was disabled during the heist.

He said several people, including overseas tourists, had called in with information.

Some had seen people acting suspiciously about the time of the theft, including a woman wearing a long, black coat.

Police hoped to have sorted through surveillance camera footage by late today.