A rare set of moa bones is going under the hammer in London in January. Photo / Supplied
A rare set of moa bones is going under the hammer in London in January. Photo / Supplied
Rare 1000-year-old moa bones from the South Island of New Zealand have surfaced at auction on the other side of the world, along with a gold-mounted huia beak broach.
The leg and foot bones from a South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) will go under the hammer at top auction house, Sotheby’s, in London next month.
The massive flightless bird, where adult females reached foliage 3.6m high, became extinct circa 1500.
The assembled group of bones, with the largest bone measuring 72cm long, are “possibly 1000 years old or earlier”, according to Sotheby’s which expects them to fetch between $7600 and $11,400.
The moa bones are expected to sell for between $7600 and $11,400. Photo / Supplied
They form part of a much-anticipated sale from renowned collector and antique dealer Emma Hawkins, which is “drawn from the interiors of townhouses in Edinburgh and London”.
Also in the sale are other remarkable artefacts from extinct species, including a 9-carat gold-mounted huia beak broach, circa 1880, expected to reach about $10,000, and a pounamu mere, or Māori short club, which could sell for more than $75,000.
There is also a section of dodo beak, pre-historic mammoth tusk, teeth, and leg bone, along with fossilised antlers from the extinct giant Irish elk.
A pounamu hand club is also included in the Sotheby's sale. Photo / Supplied
But the sale’s headline piece is ‘Lady Cust’s Great Auk’, an extremely rare egg of the extinct great auk bird, which could fetch six figures.
Eggs of the great auk are regarded as being among the most sought-after of all natural history objects, due to their exceptional rarity.
The egg, which is said to have come from Iceland in 1844, once belonged to English aristocrat and naturalist Mary Anne Cust. Its estimate is $85,000–$114,000.
Moa bones occasionally surface for sale and have been controversial items in the past.
It is not illegal to sell bones from the extinct animal, as sellers are no longer contributing to their decline, but if bones are found on either Department of Conservation land or an archaeological site, it is against the law to on-sell them.
A review of the Wildlife Act 1953 is ongoing and could also impact future sales of such items.
“Prior to the arrival of humans, the giant moa had an ecologically stable population in New Zealand for at least 40,000 years,” the brief Sotheby’s catalogue note says.
A condition report attached to the catalogue says: “Condition is good with typical signs of wear consistent with age. It is possible that some bones are associated and/or missing, regardless this is an impressive assembly.”
The sale, ‘Emma Hawkins: A Natural World’, runs from January 9 to 19.
