Thecaseofthe missing egg

• Published date: 03 December 2022
• Publication title: Mix, The

What got me interested in museums to start with were the objects that museums care for

In my 12 years at the Waitaki Museum and Archive the collections have provided me endless inspiration, excitement and occasionally some intrigue.

A major project this year has been installing new shelving in our collection store. It is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to re-organise the store and ensure we are providing the best care we can for the items entrusted to our museum.

Long before the building work started our staff and volunteers began slowly readying the collection for this task. Rehousing objects, inventorying shelf locations, trying to reconcile different pieces of collection information from old letters, index books and newspaper articles. One thing that came from all this work was a list of missing objects to keep our eyes peeled for. Despite wanting a top 10, I ended up with a list of nine significant missing objects. It included objects stolen in a break-in the 1980s, objects loaned and not returned, along with some things that just seem to have vanished.

The missing object my thoughts often return to (spoiler, sadly it has not turned up yet) is a moa egg. Brian Gill, former curator at Auckland Museum, has written extensively on moa eggs. Just 36 whole eggs are recorded from collections around the world, although that list does not include the egg that was once at the North Otago Pioneer Gallery.

The missing egg appears in our records as being donated by Mr Williams, of Queens Crescent, in 1961. We do not have any photographs of the egg. There is some correspondence with Otago Museum seeking advice on displaying the egg and there is newspaper coverage of the donation. Some...