Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck
- flooded August 6 1985
Few sights are as distressing as a flooded museum. Everything is soaked and in disorder,
irreplaceable objects fall apart, unique specimens lie in puddles on the floor, collapsed
show cases, and don't even think about the labels, records and ledgers.
View from the flooded basement of Ferdinandeum, 1985.
August 6 1985 the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, Austria
was flooded literally in a matter of minutes. A landslide blocked the river Sill, water
rose in the streets of Innsbruck, soon reaching the 'Ferdinandeum'. Staff and visitors ran
to the upper floor to escape the rising waters, unable to save anything from the
collections. Fortunately, there were no human casualties, but the collection was for all
practical purposes destroyed. Sill carries much sediment, and the collection was not just
soaked, but covered by mud.
Ferdinandeum is a multi-purpose museum with extensive cultural and natural
history collections. Prior to the flood, the museum had approximately half a million
natural history specimens, including 650 stuffed animals and birds. It served as
repository for type material, historic collections, and systematic Tirolean collections.
The collection includes the last bear shot in Tyrol, the last wolves, a unique mottled
crow endemic to Tyrol, a plethora of specimens from royal hunts and individuals of
species usually not found in Tyrol, etc.
Three assorted birds prior to restoration.
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The same birds after restoration.
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After the flood, staff and volunteers salvaged as much as possible and froze it. The
collapsed shelves and handling the soaked specimens caused additional breakage, but
freezing the material bought time. It halted decay, and allowed the staff to search
competent assistance for the restoration.
Many specimens were irreplaceable, and there was no question the collection
should be saved. The local community and government stepped in with generous
donations and funding, so general refurbishing and restoration of the collections were
underway shortly after the disaster. Orla Hedegaard of Denmark restored one specimen
as a free sample, and placed a bid on restoring the stuffed birds and animals. Tiroler
Landesmuseum solicited competing bids, but no other company bid on the task after one
year's search, and it was awarded to Orla Hedegaard.
Muddy owl.
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Clean owl.
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The collection obviously suffered from the flood but also the usual ailments of
antique specimens. Many specimens were over 100 years old with dermestid attacks,
broken necks, missing claws, etc. Often much of the skin was eaten, mud gluing the
loose feathers to the mannequins, some of which were made from moss. Restoration
included cleaning blocks of feathers, replacing the skin and graft the patch on the
specimen.
Eagle before, and ...
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after restoration.
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Our winning bid included restoration of all the specimens to the museum's
specifications, mounted for display or unmounted for reference. Restoration allows
liberty with respect to mounting, and only two of the 650 specimens could not be saved.
The management stated the collection is in better condition now than prior to the flood,
and we thank them for allowing us to continuously use them as a reference. We invite
prospective clients to contact the management of 'Ferdinandeum' directly for reference,
and ourselves with inquiries. We believe no restoration of zoological specimens is
impossible, and the cost competes favourably with mounting new specimens.
This page is written and maintained by Claus Hedegaard.
Mineraler