Descendants of man who left Sarjeant Gallery time capsule fascinated by discovery
7 May, 2021 05:00 PM
5 minutes to read
John Carson, great-grandson of John Brodie, with wife Janice is proud to be tied to such a historic story. Photo / Bevan Conley
John Carson, great-grandson of John Brodie, with wife Janice is proud to be tied to such a historic story. Photo / Bevan Conley
Descendants of the man who stowed away a time capsule in the historic Sarjeant Gallery more than a century ago say they are fascinated by its recent discovery. Clerk of works for the original construction project John Cornfoot Brodie stowed away a glass time capsule filled with a variety of contents in one of the walls in 1918.
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Sargeant Gallery is one of New Zealand s most iconic and best-known heritage buildings.
Photo: Supplied
The contents give a fascinating historical window into the time of World War I, as well as resurrecting an old controversy of who really designed the building.
Originally constructed between 1917-1919 the Sarjeant Gallery at Pukenamu Queen s Park is one of New Zealand s most iconic and best-known heritage buildings.
The redevelopment is the largest arts development in the lower North Island since Te Papa. It will give the region an earthquake strengthened heritage gallery with a new state-of-the-art modern wing.
The new gallery is scheduled to reopen in 2023, capable of showcasing national and international exhibitions. It will also house the nationally-significant Sarjeant collection of over 8300 works of New Zealand and international art.
Your playlist will load after this ad The tradie working on the strengthening of the heritage-listed building that made the discovery is calling it fate. Source: 1 NEWS
He felt the drill drop into an unexpected space between the walls below, where there should have been concrete.
“We ve got to investigate that,” he told 1 NEWS.
Directly below in the gallery where the drilling had occurred above, another hole was created in a nearby wall to find the space.
Awa put his hand in the hole, removing what he thought was rubbish.
“Realised straight away soon as I grabbed it that, ‘Aw hang on a minute, that s not rubbish’ so we ve carefully removed what it was and discovered all the treasure.”