A family row over the widow of Mt Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary planning to sell his collection of Rolex watches at Swiss auction may be resolved by the Government and courts.Sir Ed's son Peter and his daughter Sarah are understood to have instruct
A family row over the widow of Mt Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary planning to sell his collection of Rolex watches at Swiss auction may be resolved by the Government and courts.
Sir Ed's son Peter and his daughter Sarah are understood to have instructed their lawyers to seek an injunction in the High Court at Auckland to stop stepmother Lady June Hillary from selling the watches, due to go under the hammer in Geneva on Sunday (Monday, NZ time).
However, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage is seeking a legal opinion on whether the watches are protected by a law which could have stopped them being exported from New Zealand without permission.
The ministry said if the watches were found to have legal protection under the Protected Objects Act, the New Zealand and Swiss Governments may get involved.
The collection includes an Oyster Perpetual watch presented to Sir Ed after he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men to climb Mt Everest in 1953. It was estimated to fetch about $25,000.
"We are currently in the process of seeking an opinion on whether any of the watches would (fall under the Act)," Ministry spokesperson Liz Cotton said.
By law protected object cannot be exported without ministry permission.
The row over the watches only came to the ministry's attention a few days ago, Ms Cotton said.
It was too early to say whether anyone had done anything wrong in sending the watches overseas to be sold.
"I can't say at the moment, until we go through the process of establishing whether any of them (the watches) would be protected New Zealand objects under the Act."
If any of the watches were declared protected objects, having them returned to New Zealand would depend on what conventions and laws were in place in Switzerland.
She said one option would be for the Government to order their return and see what response came back from the Swiss Government.
Last night the auction house said the watches remained in the auction catalogue and were still for sale.
The Hillarys said Lady June put the watches up for sale without talking to them, and the watches were owned by the family, not Lady June, under the terms of his father's will.
Sir Ed died in 2008.
It was understood the Hillarys would seek a court injunction, which would mean Lady June must withdraw the watches from the sale.
New Zealand courts have no jurisdiction in Switzerland but could make orders which applied to people in New Zealand, even if the event was happening overseas.
A spokesman for the Hillarys said they "were doing everything they possibly can to prevent the sale of the family heirloom watches" but would not say more.
Sir Ed wore the Oyster Perpetual to the South Pole during the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the first overland crossing of the Antarctica since Sir Robert Scott's attempt in 1912. It is engraved Sir E Hillary.
Lady Hillary was not available for comment.
Her lawyer also refused to comment.
