After I asked if a Dr Rob Mason worked in the museum, a receptionist made me wait in the foyer, awkwardly clutching my box.
Unsurprisingly, Rob Mason was the museum's chief anthropologist. He looked like he had a trace of Maori ancestry, but to my disappointment, he didn't wear a lab coat. He led me through a maze of corridors into a cluttered office with bookshelves along the wall.
We sat down at the desk in the middle of the room.
'Your grandmother would be Ngaio?'
I nodded. I gave him the box. He set it aside on his desk.
When I raised my eyebrows, he said, 'It is not for me to look at.'
My heart jumped. Tapu indeed. And I'd been trying to sell this thing?
'What do you know about it?' he asked.
'Nothing,' I said, and when the silence lingered, I added. 'It's Chinese.'
'That's a
