Prague museum to dry last of documents frozen after flood in 2002

Salvation of 200 cubic metres have cost 25.3 million crowns

Published on 17 August 2011

Author(s): CTZ/Prague Daily Monitor

Type:  News

Prague's National Technical Museum (NTM) director Karel Ksandr Tuesday opened the last of the packets with archive documents that were inundated in the museum's depository by the swelling Vltava river in summer 2002, then immediately frozen and gradually unfrozen for restoration.

Without being frozen, the wet documents would have decayed.

The last packet was opened Tuesday for the documents in it to be dried in the NTM's special centre.

An exhibition documenting the rescue works will open in the NTM on August 17.

During the disastrous floods in August 2002, water from the Vltava inundated the ground floor of Invalidovna, a Baroque complex hosting the NTM archives, up to three metres above the ground.

Ksandr said the salvation of the cultural heritage, or the gradual unfreezing and drying of photographs, books, magazines, plans, drawings, models and hundreds of other items from the NTM's collections, of a total volume of 200 cubic metres, have cost 25.3 million crowns.

"The tragical expectations have not come true. The abundant architectonic and aviation archives and other exhibits have been preserved," Ksandr said.

The loss is estimated at two to three percent, he said.

The freezing of wet documents was a battle with time. They had to be quickly stripped of gross dirt and wrapped in clingfilm. The packets were rushed to refrigeration plants near Prague for being frozen to minus 25 degrees Centigrade.

"This method was known theoretically, but no one had tried it before in our country in so large a scale," Ksandr said.

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