Titanic goes in museum clean-out

A Wellington museum is selling off a model of the Titanic, as it looks to focus its collection on stories from the city.

The Museum of Wellington City & Sea has almost completed an overhaul of its Ngauranga Gorge storage base and, as part of that, its collection has been reassessed.

Items with few ties to Wellington were being sent to other institutions.

Wellington Museums Trust chief executive Pat Stuart said: “For example, two models of the HMS Monowai, as it was during World War II, have gone to the Naval Museum in Auckland. We still have two remaining in the collection.”

Several photographs have gone to the Voyager National Maritime Museum in Auckland, and more than 2000 glass plates and negatives have been sent to the Wellington City Archives.

A large whaling pot has been transferred to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre.

The overhaul is likely to be completed this week, and only one item was being sold, she said  a large model of the Titanic in its death throes.

While the scale model was interesting, it had “no relevance to Wellington”, she said.

It was made in 1988 by D Flannery of Hawera, and is expected to fetch between $3500 and $4000 at a Dunbar Sloane antiques auction next month.

Any proceeds would go back into developing the Museum of Wellington City & Sea’s collection, Ms Stuart said.

Sources:http://www.stuff.co.nz

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