An archive featuring thousands of images of Māori, Pasifika, and New Zealand European rugby greats form the early 20th century is set to go under the hammer.
The collection has been in foreign hands for more than a decade but is now priced to sell — with a $1 reserve.
Fairfax Media sent the archive to the US to be digitised more than a decade ago, and by the time the Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles purchased it, the archive was in danger of being destroyed.
New Zealand Rugby Museum director Stephen Berg said to get the photos back in New Zealand, and safely into someone’s hands, or, even better, an organisation’s hands “would be great”.
The rugby part of the collection features familiar faces from New Zealand rugby royalty — with significant memories of more than 2000 players, and The Invincibles tour of 1925.
Frank Bunce was an All Black from 1991 to 1997, and is featured in photos within the archive. He told 1News it is “just so valuable”.
“Things like that, once they are gone you never get them back.”
Despite the $1 reserve, it’s not an auction for everyone. Many photos are originals — and the gallery selling them said the negatives are long lost.
Digitising the collection could also be costly, according to Berg.
“I’d estimate if it’s 41,000 photos, if we were able to digitise 10,000 a year, that’s four years worth of labour as well, so potentially looking at $300,000 of funding that we’d need to get the job done,” he said.
On this cost, Bunce said: “I could probably go up to three or four dollars but somehow I don’t think I’d be successful.”
The auction is live for the next 27 days before the collection’s fate and future is locked in.
