That's in the literary sphere, but there's a painterly gem which until recently has remained hidden from sight until Joel Schiff published it recently through the Otago University Press.
I devoted the last column to Dr Schiff's biography of the Dunedin-born artist Grace Joel and the column was illustrated with one of her paintings owned by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and well known here.
Dr Schiff has made available to me an image of one of his discoveries, a portrait, probably Mdlle. la Comtesse de M, exhibited at the New Gallery in London in 1908. It's a large oil, 125.5 x 76.2cm, and a very stylish and successful painting.
As reproduced in the book it is rather cooler in its colour than the warmer tones of the digital image I've got which Dr Schiff tells me is nearer to the original. The painting is privately owned, I believe overseas.
The good literary news is Dunedin's elevation to the status of a Unesco Creative City of Literature, announced in Paris on what for us was Monday December 1. It hasn't come without considerable effort by a number of people over a long time.
There has been a steering committee working towards this for years, including Bernie Hawke, the city's arts and culture group manager, Liz Knowles, writer and poet Annie Villiers and Dr Noel Waite of the university's design department.
It was extensively reported (ODT 3.12.14) from a press conference called by a very happy Mayor Dave Cull. The same issue carried a positive informative editorial.
It didn't come without a cost. The ODT reported the city had put more than $12,000 into the effort. Now, as if this international recognition were not enough, it was also reported (ODT, 3.12.14) that the Hocken Collections' Marsden papers have been entered on the Unesco memory of the world New Zealand register of documentary heritage.
They are not only the personal papers of the Rev Samuel Marsden, who preached the first Christian service on Christmas Day 1814, but the associated papers of the mission he established which Dr Hocken persuaded the Church Missionary Society in London to give to him.
It was probably his best single acquisition, its presence here as long a source of wonder as the value of the information it contains.
What does all this recognition mean? The list of Unesco Creative Cities of Literature is short. Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Reykyavik, Norwich and Krakow were already on it. When Dunedin was added, so were Grenada in Spain, Heidelberg in Germany and Prague in the Czech Republic.
It is not simply recognition by the international body that the place is a hive of writing and distributing literature. After all, Paris, London and New York aren't on it although they are all big producers and distributors.
To get on the list you have to apply and you do have to demonstrate not only a literary heritage but current literary activity. I don't know if the big places I mentioned have ever applied but Unesco's website gives reasons why a city might.
They include highlighting the city's cultural assets globally, making creativity an essential element of local economic and social development, building local capacity and training local cultural actors in business skills, sharing knowledge across cultural clusters around the world, cultivating innovation through the exchange of know-how, experiences and best practices, promoting diverse cultural products in national and international markets, creating new opportunities for co-operation and partnership with other cities.
One sees why places like the big cities I mentioned might not make the effort to join.
They are not only huge hives of activity, the world already knows about them and comes to them. But for smaller or more distant places which do have both a heritage and an active scene this is a means to network and promote at the international level.
I'm reminded of what has been achieved recently with the flush of new murals around the city, many by overseas artists and achieved without membership of any international body so far as I'm aware.
The result has been a great flowering and bodes well for what may flow from the Creative City of Literature status.
People have asked what economic gains the city can expect? It's been said that's pretty hard to calculate.
I agree but the point is, that isn't the real gain. It's the enhanced literary activity we hope to see flourishing and the reward of reading it and seeing it performed. Doubtless some more people will come to Dunedin for this reason and we'll get the benefit of their dollars.
But this is a call to arms. We'll need more action and spending but there will be literary gains.
Peter Entwisle is a Dunedin curator, historian and writer.
