mummified moa remains

[San Diego Natural History Museum Library]

I share Karsten's concerns on this one. While there is no doubt that
exhibition brings a necessary level of public awareness up, there should
be a limit on how far one goes to make something rare, fragile, or
irreplaceable more exhibitable. And the proposed drying and even
dehydration could cause irreversible damage (as could all the other
factors you have to weigh in the decision to exhibit something: UV, IR,
temperature, humidity, risk of theft or vandalism)....Even the exhibition
of human mummies stored dry is such a prblematic area that the Getty
Conservation Institute has been working on specialised exhibition cases
to minimize as much damage as possible. Is it necessary to exhibit the
moa remains themselves? If so, I would change as little about their
current storage medium as possible. Exhibition is in itself a storage
environment--just a far les protective one--and the specimen needs at
least one level of protective microenvironment.

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation


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