Lintel display soon?

Press, 28 July 1978, Page 4

Lintel display soon?

The Canterbury Museum, may have its carved Maori! door-lintel, worth $Bl,OOO, on J display within a month. This possibility was raised last evening when the Museum Trust Board agreed that it would not wait until the $14,000 shortfall had been raised before bringing the lintel to New Zealand. Instead, it will attempt to have the money lent to it, and pav off the debt with funds raised by an appeal to! the people of Canterbury. The lintel was bought inj London last month at an auction of the Pacific artefact col-' lection.

The lintel, believed to have come from Te Kaha in the Bay of Plenty, has a central standing tiki figure. It dates, from about 1800 to 1810. , More than $66,000 has already been paid, consisting! of a $50,000 Government subsidy. $15,000 of Museum, Trust funds, and an $lBOO donation from an expatriate New Zealand famiiv — the De Beers, of London.

It is hoped that the $14,182! needed will be raised with; $2OOO from the Opotiki Tribal; Trusts, another $2OOO from, national donations, and the! remaining $lO,OOO from the appeal in Canterbury. About $3200 of the $lO,OOO has already been raised. It is. hoped that the Friends of the Museum organisation wtHi tontribute another $10.000;

and the trustees of a deceased estate have agreed to make up any deficit. Of the $Bl,OOO paid, onlv $72,000 was actually for the lintel. The rest went to Sotheby’s which auctioned it, and which traditionally receives commission from both the seller and buyer. Dr Duff said the auction [had been marked by some I of the highest prices recorded i for Maori artefacts. A wooden ! Easter Island ancestor figure, • similar to four which the I museum possessed. had [fetched €50,000. Ordinary Maori wooden hand clubs, called wahaikaj

had gone for prices ranging from £2400 to £4200.

Yesterday’s meeting of the board also paid tribute to Mr William Deans, who for 24 years has represented the Canterbury Pilgrims’ and Early Settlers’ Association as a board member. He recently retired at the age of 88. According to the Museum’s director (Dr R. S. Duff) it will be the first time since the board was established in 1948 that a member of the Deans family has not been represented on it.

Mr Deans gave $5OO towards the cost of the Maori door-lintel when ' retired.