Kelly Tarlton Collection

Kelly Tarlton Collection

Kelly Tarlton

Tarlton 1937–1985, was an adventurer / entrepreneur focused on the marine world. His diving activities concentrated on shipwrecks. One outcome was the display of the material recovered in a private museum built within Tui, a beached former sugar lighter, at Paihia. It operated as a museum from 1970-2002. A key part of the collection was the Rothschild treasure recovered by Tarlton from the SS Tasmania wreck at Mahia in 1975. Rothschild was a jeweler. The Museum was robbed in 2000 by a notorious career criminal. His subsequent violent crimes led to him being sentenced to preventive detention. The material taken valued at $300,000 included the Rothschild material and has never been recovered, though in 2018 it was reported that the Police were investigating material offered for sale on Trade Me as being from the unrecovered material . The museum was sold in 2002 by Tarlton's widow and the remaining collections dispersed by sale.

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