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July 5th, 2008
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Museum collections on the move

10 million artifacts must be relocated before restoration

By Ondřej Bouda
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 9th, 2008 issue

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
The National Museum's reconstruction, which will cost 4.5 billion Kč and add modern technologies, is proving a "logistical nightmare."
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JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
The paleontology department faces the task of repackaging, inventorying and moving up to 15,000 boxes, each weighing 10 kilos.
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The National Museum is preparing for a major reconstruction — the largest in the 117 years of the history of the building that has become synonymous with Wenceslas Square. This impressive task means moving an estimated 10 million artifacts ranging from whale bones to pottery pieces to new depositories and uprooting resident researchers from their desks so the building will be clear for the restoration to begin in 2011.
The reconstruction project also includes the acquisition of the building currently used by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is located north across the street from the National Museum. As early as next year, that new building will open limited exhibits to the public on its first floor and will house the museum’s administrative offices.
The complex process, which will cost 4.5 billion Kč ($280 million) and during the preparations for which the museum will remain open, is a logistical nightmare that rests on the shoulders of National Museum Director Michal Lukeš. “Sometimes I feel the only thing I can do is pray,” he said.
The museum is in dire need of restoration for many reasons, one being the fact that it lacks many technologies that have been developed since it was built. For example, the building still steam heating.
“Every now and then the steam pipes burst and wreak havoc on our collections,” Lukeš said. “Recently, we spent four days searching for a leak and discovered it on a library shelf. Instead of books, we suddenly had a mushroom collection.”
The current depositories are too small to hold the ever-growing collections and lack the air regulation necessary to keep artifacts at ideal temperature and humidity levels. All collections currently housed in the depositories are therefore being moved to permanent storage in modern depositories in Terezín and Horní Počernice, where they can be studied by experts.
Besides unsatisfactory conditions inside, Lukeš added that the building’s exterior is slowly disintegrating due to vibrations from constant traffic and pollution from both passing vehicles and Prague’s pigeon population. Statues are falling apart and water leaks into the facade’s pillars, which were shoddily reconstructed after Soviet soldiers used them for target practice during the 1968 Prague Spring.
For these reasons, in 2011, the building will disappear behind scaffolding for four years. The museum is trying to coordinate these reconstruction efforts with City Hall’s planned revitalization of Wenceslas Square, which will include the diversion of current expressway traffic through an underground tunnel. The combined efforts will restore both the square and the museum to the vision of their original designers. In 1864, the Bohemian Provincial Assembly, under the Austrian Empire, declared, “The museum should stand close to the city center, yet in a calm and relaxing environment accessible from all sides. Its cleanliness and peacefulness should not be disturbed by daily life.”
Business as usual
Despite the relocation of staff and artifacts, the museum will remain open during reconstruction preparation. Researchers from all over the world come and go regularly, and public exhibitions are planned for the main building through 2011 and in the new building after that.
“We don’t want people to forget there is a museum, so we have to keep going despite all the difficulties reconstruction presents,” Lukeš said. Eventually, the new building should house interactive exhibitions, classrooms, restaurants and staff offices. It will be connected by a tunnel to the old building, where more space will be freed up for classical exhibitions and study rooms for experts.
“I believe a museum should provide a service for the whole community: kids, families, tourists, students, researchers and lecturers. And the National Museum has been lacking in most modern forms of education. We are already famous for our expertise, but we should do more to bring that knowledge to the layman. This is our chance to do so,” Lukeš said.
Even though the reconstruction itself won’t start for another three years, some departments have begun moving already. The museum houses the largest collection of historical, natural and artistic artifacts in the Czech Republic, and each department has its own specific needs when it comes to housing and moving its respective pieces. Archeological finds are often very fragile and need extra care in handling; botanical and literary exhibits cannot come into contact with water. “At least my job is easier than when the museum moved to this building in 1890,” Lukeš said. “Back then it was all done manually, and citizens watched as workmen carried bones and stuff across Wenceslas Square.”
The department of paleontology has probably the heaviest artifacts. “We have 10,000 to 15,000 boxes at 10 kilograms [22 pounds] each,” estimated Martin Valent, curator of that collection.
Each box has to be taken off its shelf, cleaned, opened, checked, repackaged and inventoried before it can be moved to the new depositories. The process takes about 15 minutes per box. “The work is tedious but at least we find old newspapers inside and can read what happened when the boxes were packed,” Valent said.
Some of the boxes have not been touched since their original filing and the stones inside still bear inscriptions made by the famous paleontologist Joachim Barrande, who worked in central Bohemia from 1840 until his death in 1883.
They will briefly see daylight for the first time in more than a century before they are safely stowed away in modern depositories.

Ondřej Bouda can be reached at news@praguepost.com


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