A golden sword worth thousands of dollars is just going under the hammer at an auction house in Auckland.
A metre or so of solid gold, the sword was presented to the late Prime Minister David Lange, as a gift by the Emir of Bahrain.
His wife, Margaret, was the first to feel something uncomfortable about its presence.
"She wasn't happy with the idea of a bladed weapon in the house, so she decided to have it valued to see what it was," says auctioneer Christopher Devereaux. "She took it to a valuer in Wellington who pronounced it to be gold plate. And then, on the basis of that, it was then sold by auction."
However the valuer was wrong - it wasn't gold plate. But that didn't bring much luck to John Barlow, the man who bought it. He was later jailed for the murders of Wellington businessmen Gene and Eugene Thomas.
"As part of trying to pay for his defence, his wife decided to sell the sword," Mr Devereaux says. "Of course Barlow realised it was solid gold because there's a set of marks right on the end to tell you that if you look carefully enough."
The sword is expected to sell for around $40,000 to $50,000.
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