A CLOAK belonging to a Maori chief was set to go under the hammer today – but a backlash from livid New Zealanders stopped the sale.

Sussex couple Mary and Steve Squires said they faced a barrage of online abuse after putting the Maori kakahu up for auction in Battle.

They found the rare garment in a cupboard years ago after inheriting a family home.

Experts said it was likely to fetch between £3,000 and £5,000 at Burstow and Hewett auction house today.

But the cloak was made over a hundred years ago by the Ngati Maniapoto tribe in New Zealand, and worn by the 19th century chief Rewi Maniapoto, who is revered in Maori culture. He led rebel forces against the New Zealand government’s invasion of Waikato in the upper North Island.

The outcry began when a New Zealand broadcaster showed a piece about the cloak ahead of the auction.

Online, New Zealanders said they would travel to the UK to retrieve the cloak and return it to the Maori community.

The tone became aggressive and police were called in to handle online abuse.

Mary said: “It hasn’t been very nice, and enough is enough. We took it off sale because we were being bullied.

“The bullies don’t deserve the time of day, but we decided it was better not to put it on sale or put anyone else under stress. It made us very angry. We don’t put up with bullies. We were frightened.”

The auctioneers also received threats, and the item has been removed from their listings.

Burstow and Hewett was not available for comment, but has previously said it felt it did the right thing by withdrawing the cloak from sale.

The auction house said the New Zealand High Commission had apologised for the actions of those sending the abuse.

The cloak dates to the 1800s. Steve traced his family tree back to Thomas Grice, who met chief Rewi Maniapoto after the Maori wars in 1872.

The cloak, woven from flax and cotton, holds great importance for the Maori.

New Zealand’s national collective of Maori weavers, Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, explained that “Maori art is inseparable from Maori culture. It is like a living organism that exists in the spirit of our people and drives them toward wider horizons and greater achievements.”

Maori cloaks tell family stories, and connect the ancestors who owned them with their descendants today.

Maori tribesman Te Kukupa owns an ancestral kahu kiwi, or kiwi feather cloak.

He said: “When I wear it I feel very humble, yet very proud – proud of where it has come from. It not only gives me warmth outside but I feel very warm inside.”