An attempt to retain the marble altar at the Teschemakers' chapel has gone national after featuring on RadioLive yesterday morning.
The altar, donated by the Hart family in 1926 and shipped from Italy in 19 crates, is to be removed from the former Catholic girls' boarding school chapel and installed in Holy Name Church in Dunedin.
But Susie Scott, nee McCarthy and grand-daughter of Peter McCarthy, who gave the 28-bedroom house and 10 hectares to the Dominican Sisters in 1911 for the school, with another 40ha in 1918, does not want that to happen.
The Otago Daily Times on Saturday reported that Ms Scott hoped to appeal to the Dominican Sisters to leave the altar in the chapel, although acknowledging the Sisters owned by contents.
Japanese company Nikken Seil owns the property and has it on the market.
Yesterday, Ms Scott was interviewed by Marcus Lush on his RadioLive morning programme, giving the campaign a national profile.
She appealed to listeners to support retaining the altar in the chapel by writing letters to editors of newspapers and emailing the Dominican Sisters.
The Dominican Sisters had said North Otago had not come up with a plan to preserve the chapel, so they decided to shift the altar.
That was due to take place about the middle of this month.
Ms Scott appealed to the sisters to delay the removal so "we can get a plan B together.
We are frantically trying to come up with an alternative plan".
"You know how difficult it is to get something back once it has been taken away," she said on radio.
