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Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox wants a 19th century Maori cloak on Trade Me to go back to iwi.
The flax and wool korowai was offered by a Waiheke seller along with a number of other Maori-related items, and sold for its listing price of $6000.
A tag on the cloak said it was bought in the Wairarapa by an American tourist in the late 19th century and donated to the Rochester Historical Society in New York, which deaccessioned it some years ago.
Ms Fox, who lives in the Wairarapa, says it should be returned to its local iwi.
She's trying to contact the buyer.
Korowai often come up for auction, but there is often little information about where they are made.
GNS Science forensic geochemist Dr Karyne Rogers and Te Papa textile conservator Rangituatahi Te Kanawa are currently leading a Marsden Fund project to use trace elements in the mud used to dye cloaks to identify where they might have been made, so the many unknown korowai in Te Papa's collection can be linked back to iwi.
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