Te Papa's building and collection largely unscathed in earthquake
22 November 2016
The 7.8-magnitude quake caused damage to just nine objects, six on display and three in storage at the national museum in Wellington.
Two vertebrae and a tongue bone from the museum's suspended pygmy blue whale were dislodged and fell to the ground, but are fixable.
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa survived the earthquake virtually unscathed.
"But obviously every earthquake's unique and we're always learning and trying to make the museum more resilient," Camp said.
Te Papa's museum and sea display has been closed after large bones from a suspended pygmy blue whale were dislodged and fell to the ground in the earthquake.
The Mountains to Sea display area is closed while the skeleton is taken down and disassembled.
"We will work with external experts to understand exactly how the damage occurred, and how we can mitigate those risks if it goes on display again in the future," Te Papa head of collections Simon Whittaker said.
Te Papa's suspended pygmy blue whale may not return after three 15kg bone fragments fell to the ground in the earthquake.
The museum, and its Tory St research building, have been cleared of structural damage.
Since 2012 the museum has installed a range of new seismic protection measures in its storerooms, which had been very effective in protecting the collections.
Whittaker said it was pleasing to see how well they had worked.
"Many of these are low-tech fixes – having retention bars across the front of drawers, for example, to stop the drawers coming open.
"In a number of places, we can see the bars are bent where they have been hit by drawers in the earthquake, but they have done their job, the drawers have stayed shut, and the objects in them are undamaged," he said.
Te Papa is considered one of the most earthquake-safe big buildings in Wellington.
It was built on reclaimed land after a long period of compacting with the aid of base-isolation technology.
All items on display in the museum had been thoroughly checked, with independent engineers checking all items that are suspended in the galleries.
"The safety of the public is our first priority, and we are confident that all the right checks have been done to keep people and our collections safe," Whittaker said.
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