Kelly Tarlton Collection

Kelly Tarlton Collection

Kelly Tarlton

Tarlton 1937–1985, was an adventurer / entrepeneur 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 Rothchild treasure recovered by Tarlton from the SS Tasmania wreck at Mahia in 1975. Rothchild was a jeweler. The Museum was robbed in 2000 by a notorious career criminal. The material taken valued at $300,000 included the Rothchild material and has never been recovered, though in 2018 it was reported that the Police were investigating material offered for sale on TradeMe 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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