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Museum dusts down its prized 82ft exhibit
By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard 06.06.07
Huge task: The Natural History Museum's blue whale skeleton is having 12 years of dirt carefully removed
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The Natural History Museum began a huge spring clean today, including dusting down its prized 115-year-old blue whale skeleton.
Staff have put up 2.5 miles of scaffolding in the museum's whale hall so they can reach the 26 specimens of aquatic mammals that are on display there.
Eight specialists are carrying out the work using 10 conservation vacuum cleaners, 48 soft bristle brushes and 328ft of bubble wrap.
The operation will take until the end of the month, when the hall will reopen to the public.
Adrian Doyle, the museum's palaeontology conservator, said: "We are having to be very careful as these are iconic pieces of the collection.
"What we are finding on the bones are several distinct layers of dust, which we are analysing as we remove them. The top layer is mostly hair and fibres and below that skin fragments - all of which come from visitors.
"These bones have been here since the Thirties but are still seeping oil. That has meant a lot of dust sticks to them."
Staff are also taking detailed photographs of every display. "This is the best opportunity we have had for a long time to document the collection," said Mr Doyle.
The blue whale skeleton, which is about 82ft long and weighs 10 tonnes, was first able to be displayed in 1934 when the hall was built. The bones had been in storage for 42 years since the mammal was stranded on sandbanks off Ireland.
The specimens were last cleaned in 1995.
