Museum moves collections for air-conditioning work

Main Stories

THE National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG) is moving collections from its storerooms to a temporary storage facility to allow for air-conditioning work.
Director Dr Andrew Moutu said this programme will continue until next month.
“Museums are built environments for conservation intended for the gathering of people and collections,” Mputu said.
“We need more rooms for our storage capacity which is being overtaken with more and diverse collections coming into our care and management.
“Along with appropriate storage facilities, air-conditioning is paramount within a museum, especially in the tropics, to maintain an environment that is safe and conducive to preserve artefacts that can be degradable.
“It is a conservation requirement that the required temperature fluctuates between 24 to 25 degrees Celsius, with humidity between 55 to 60 percentages.
“We are always taking preventative measures to ensure that the collections are preserved with care and sensitivity.”
He said the museum engaged three volunteers to assist its technical officers in this exercise.
The volunteers were being supervised by acting chief curator for anthropology Grace Vele and chief conservator Francis Bafmatuk.
Prior to the artefacts being moved, a documentation process was carried out to record information about the artefact, identify artefacts with and without accession numbers and information.
This helps with the retention and retrieval of specific items from time to time.
A condition report would also be done on all artefacts before their transfer by trucks to a temporary storage facility.
This process would be repeated in other storerooms.
This initiative is part of the refurbishment work currently underway at the museum and is supported by the Australian government through the PNG-Australia partnership.