12 Jun 2010

Artefacts collection draws international interest

8:44 pm on 12 June 2010

A collection of Maori, Australian Aboriginal and Pacific Island artefacts on display at an Auckland auction house is attracting international interest.

More than half the items come from the Zanesville Museum of Art in the American state of Ohio. They were a gift from a former Caterpillar bulldozer salesman who worked in Australia and the Pacific from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Webbs auction house managing director Neil Campbell describes the collection, which ranges from cloaks and jewellery to weapons and meeting-house carvings, as "museum-quality" taonga.

He told Waatea News there has been a lot of international interest in the auction.