Under-fire museum director upbeat about review with board

Vanda Vitali. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Auckland Museum director Vanda Vitali has offered an olive branch in a performance dispute with the museum trust board.

Dr Vitali yesterday said her performance review was taking place in the context of the board's thinking about the direction in which it wanted to take the museum.

"This is a healthy, natural process and I look forward to working through this with the board," she said. "The way in which the museum serves the people of the Auckland region is an important debate, and it is essential one to have as the new Super City emerges."

Dr Vitali and the board are embroiled in a dispute centred on a string of controversies since the Canadian was appointed in September 2007. Board chairman Dr William Randall said it was the "frequency" of controversies that sparked a fair amount of debate around the board table.

Auckland mayors have become involved to "save" the director from the board. Yesterday, Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey suggested Te Papa chairman and Auckland Art Gallery Foundation chairman John Judge as a mediator. It is understood that Mr Judge would be willing to help, if approached.

Details also emerged yesterday of another controversy involving Dr Vitali to do with this year's commemoration of the World War I battle of Passchendaele in Belgium. Returned serviceman Colin Andrews said the museum "thumbed its nose" at a travelling exhibition, Passchendaele: The Belgians Have Not Forgotten, from Belgium. He said it was subsequently displayed at Fort Takapuna after some diplomatic work from the honorary consul of Belgium in New Zealand, Iain McKenzie.

Mr Andrews, who lost a great uncle in the Great War, said Dr Vitali appeared to be ignoring the primary purpose of the museum as a war memorial and should go.

"The Auckland War Memorial Museum building was established through funds raised in the 1920s by families who lost loved ones in World War I," he said.

Karl Petrie, whose grandfather Ian Petrie served in the Bomber Command - was upset at being refused space at the museum for a bronze memorial for which they had raised $100,000 - said it only went ahead with grudging acceptance.

The chairwoman of the Auckland Museum Institute, Rae Nield, said it was sad to see "our treasured museum brought into the public arena in such a negative way".

"I attend the trust board meetings and I have observed the trust board operating in a very positive way and I have every reason to believe that in a confidential matter of this kind they will behave in a professional manner."