A rare kahu (cloak) made entirely of kiwi feathers went under the hammer on Thursday night and sold well above the estimated price.
After 40 bids at Webb's auction house in Mt Eden, the cloak fell into the hands of a local iwi, which paid a whopping $72,895 for the garment.
"The garment has gone to a local iwi, but we can't say which one," Webb's Auctions spokesperson Benjamin Erren said.
"We're very pleased with the outcome of last night," Erren said.
The selling price for the 160-year-old taonga was well above the original estimate, which sat between $30,000 and $50,000.
This comes after the news of the garment going up for auction ruffled a few feathers on Thursday.
Auckland Museum voiced its concern over where the cloak would end up and uncertainty whether it would get the care it deserved.
"The main concern is how it's going to be looked after and cared for," Auckland Museum Māori curator Kahutoi Te Kanawa said.
"Within the museum, we could showcase this to the rest of the nation and to the next coming generations."
"It tells the story of what our ancestors left for us to view, it's absolutely priceless to us," Te Kanawa said.
