Sale At Christie’s Of Rare Maori Carving

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31992, 20 May 1969, Page 16

Sale At Christie’s Of Rare Maori Carving

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent)

LONDON, May 18.

A rare Maori carved wood figure believed to have come from the prow of a chief’s war canoe and estimated to be worth some $20,000 is to be auctioned at Christie’s tomorrow.

Standing 17in high and about 21in wide, the figure is thought to have been brought to Britain during the first quarter of last century. It it described by the auctioneers as a “superb” example of its kind.

“The advised auction by Christie’s at two days’ notice of a Maori canoe prow which could be of national-treasure quality for New Zealand reminds me of the lack of any machinery for swift action between the High Commissionefs Office in London and such New Zealand national

bodies as the Museums’ Association,” Dr R. S. Duff, director of the Canterbury Museum and president-elect of the New Zealand Archaeological Society, said last night in Dunedin, according to the Press Association. “The Museums’ Association, as adviser to the New Zealand Government and perhaps the Arts Council on the need for assistance to purchase such a prize, would need sufficient notice for a photograph of the article to be received at least a week before the auction,” he said. Dr Duff said that the purchase price would apparently be beyond the means of any New Zealand museum individually. It would seem a responsibility of the New Zealand Government through the Department of Internal Affairs to meet, in national terms, the sum required, he said.