KEY POINTS:
The Bluff community is not giving up hope that its iconic paua house will be restored to its former glory.
The famous tourist attraction, previously owned by the late Fred and Myrtle Flutey, was quietly stripped of the paua shells that lined the interior of the house early on Friday morning.
The Fluteys' grandson Ross Bowen, who owns the collection, was seen as the shells were loaded into a truck and driven away. Neither he nor the shells have been seen since.
Mr Bowen had controversially been intending to pass the collection on to Canterbury Museum, but the Bluff community had been trying to put together a proposal to keep it in the town.
The museum is expected to discuss the issue of the shells at a board meeting today.
Rex Powley, who chairs the community board representing Bluff, said locals desperately wanted to see the shells returned to their community.
"You never give up hope. You have got to be optimistic and hope there is some way through this," Mr Powley said.
"We don't know [Mr Bowen's] logic in shifting them out. There has been no communication at all. Everything is up in the air."
Gloria Henderson, a daughter of the Fluteys who lives next next door to the paua house, said the museum's stance could shed more light on the future of the shell collection.
"It's in the lap of the gods, as they say."
Mr Powley and Mrs Henderson said they had been inundated with phone calls from around New Zealand. People had been ringing to express their dismay and to ask what they could do to help.
"But there is nothing people can do at this time to help," Mr Powley said.
"I had one woman who said, 'Why don't we all dip into our pockets and buy the house and raise a new collection?"'
But Mrs Henderson said it would not be the same without the original collection in the house.
"People have been saying they can't understand why [Mr Bowen] took them like that."
Mr Bowen could not be reached yesterday. His brother referred the Herald to his mother in Dunedin, but she said she was unable to help.
Mrs Henderson suspected the collection was between Bluff and Dunedin.
