Taking a look at recent, positive, uplifting, news stories and yarns, from New Zealand and all around the world, to bring a smile and a bit of cheer.
Cheap copy turns out to be valuable original
This story mirrors those best moments in ‘Antiques Roadshow’ where someone shows up with a painting they bought at a garage sale for a few dollars that turns out to be an original of a master worth millions.
In 1946 Harvard Law Library in the United States purchased what they believed was a copy of the Magna Carta for US$27.50. For decades it has been viewed as a copy of the legally significant document until researchers recently realised it was in fact an original.
“David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, was studying online copies of the Magna Carta in December 2023 when he realised the version he was looking at on Harvard’s website might be an original. A detailed comparison of text and other tests were carried out on the Harvard document, which confirmed that the ‘copy’ was an original issue of the Magna Carta.
“There are four copies of the 1215 issue and seven of the 1300 version, including Harvard’s original. One version sold at auction in 2007 fetched more than US$21.3m (£10m at the time) at Sotheby’s in New York. ‘My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta,’ Mr Carpenter said.” (Source: “Magna Carta ‘copy’ miscatalogued in 1940s found to be original,” May 15, www.news.sky.com).
5 stars – tales like this just go to show the hidden jewels whose value are oftentimes underestimated!
Urban mystery solved
In the past week, inner city dwellers in Christchurch found something completely out of place – a clothes line complete with washing pegged to it. At the time nobody knew how it had come to be there, why it had been placed there, or who had even though to insert a washing line into a footpath. A true mystery and also a lovely change to the normality of city life – one with a very short shelf life as it was soon removed by persons unknown and the hole covered over by council workers.
Days later online clues emerged to suggest the washing line was an ‘installation’ by a Wellington artist.
“The city council said it understood the clothes line had been moved onto private property. But it had no further knowledge of where it came from, or who removed it. ‘We have had nothing to do with the clothes line,’ a council spokesperson said. It remained a mystery.
“That was until Wellington-based street artist Cameron Hunt posted to social media a photo of the clothes line, with the caption ‘Streetwear, 2025’
“Hunt is known for public and playful art installations. He was behind the fake Wellington City Council sign warning people to not feed the crocodiles in the Botanic Gardens, the enormous pool noodle that floated across the Whairepo Lagoon, and the empty lot filled with colourful plastic flowers by the Embassy Theatre. He told The Post in April that he wanted people to ‘take a moment out of their same routine day, just to smile or be confused’. (Source: “The mystery of the Christchurch clothes line in the middle of the footpath, solved?” by Phoebe Utteridge, May 16, www.stuff.co.nz).
5 stars – I like the idea of creating something to give pause and reflection to the everyday of city life – total upside!
Native icons get into a bit of biffo
Takahē and tuatara are not often in close proximity to each other and recently two of them got into a physical altercation that was filmed by a DOC worker on Tiritiri Matangi Island near Auckland.
“It started with the takahē seemingly attacking the tuatara, DOC ranger Nick Fisentzidis said. He used his phone to record the footage. ‘I saw them having a bit of a nip at each other; the takahē definitely had a go at the tail of the tuatara, and they had a bit of a scrap. I followed them down the hill, and the tuatara got a couple of bites in, so the takahē backed off and snuck back away up the forest.’
“Although historically both takahē and tuatara were widespread across New Zealand, they now only co-exist in two locations, Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf and Zealandia in Wellington. ‘It’s a neat snapshot of how these interactions may have gone in the past. It also shows what’s possible in the future if we really start to rally together to bring more of our native wildlife back,’ Fisentzidis said. (Source: “DOC ranger snaps rare footage of tuatara and takahē ‘having a scrap,'” May 15, www.rnz.co.nz).
0 Comments