The history of Moai & Pukao of Otago museum

Following almost 90 years of exhibition in the Otago Museum in New Zealand, it has been possible to study the origin of one Moai and Pukao (headdress) from Rapa Nui. These archaeological pieces, as archives indicate, were carried from Rapa Nui to Tahiti in 1881 by the merchant ship “Nautilus”, together with three crates of “curiosities” destined to Maison Brander in Pape’ete. Almost 50 years later, both were acquired by the Otago Museum and shipped from Tahiti to Aotearoa (New Zealand) to be exhibited in a new “Pacific Cultures Gallery” at the Otago Museum which was opened in April of 1930.