[CPProt.net] Museum community cautiously emerges from Katrina

[Ellie Bruggeman]

Katrina: Museum community cautiously emerges from Katrina

How do you reclaim a ruined treasure?

Once Hurricane Katrina's flood waters have receded, the dead have been 
buried, and the clean-up has begun, the people of Louisiana and 
Mississippi may face yet another devastating blow: the destruction of 
cherished artworks and historical documents.

In Biloxi, Miss., for instance, Beauvoir, the former home of Confederate 
President Jefferson Davis, has been badly damaged, officials said.

The situation in New Orleans is harder to assess because practically the 
entire city is a museum, and much of it is under 20 feet of water. 
Still, some news -- not good but not awful -- is trickling in.

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The buildings that make up the Louisiana State Museums sustained some 
damage, but "the collections are in better shape than feared," according 
to curator Tamra Carboni, who is quoted on the American Association of 
Museums Web site.

The New Orleans Museum of Art, which sits on high ground and a raised 
foundation, survived the hurricane and flood, but its director, John 
Bullard, is worried about the sculpture garden. And the Ogden Museum of 
Southern Art initially was reported to be unscathed -- but that was 
before the levees broke and communications ceased.

"Not even counting the French Quarter, every part of New Orleans has 
incredible historic resources," said John Hildreth, director of the 
National Trust for Historic Preservation. "It's absolutely gut-wrenching 
to see this destruction on top of the human suffering."

Members of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force are scheduled to 
conduct a telephone conference call Thursday to come up with a plan for 
assessing the damage to artworks and historical documents. But it may be 
weeks or months before the full loss is known, said Dennis Fiori of the 
Maryland Historical Society.

Hildreth said Beauvoir, a 1 1/2-story home built on a slight rise, was 
under up to 30 feet of water at one point.

"It's maybe 500 yards from the beach, Ground Zero in Biloxi," he said. 
"We'd heard at first that it had been destroyed, but I found out today 
that it's still standing on its foundations. The galleries (porches) are 
gone, and there has been significant damage to the house. We don't know 
yet how all the papers in Davis' presidential library have fared."

The Historic Trust has asked the National Guard to be posted at the site 
to deter looters.

New Orleans, frequently described as the most European city in America, 
has more than 40 museums, including the Musee Conti Wax Museum, Historic 
Voodoo Museum and Historic New Orleans Collection, a treasure trove of 
fragile maps, photographs and other antique documents.

And that doesn't count the privately owned Gitter-Yelen Art Study 
Center, with its collection of Japanese art from the 17th through the 
19th centuries.

A few days before Katrina hit, New Orleans' museums sent out e-mail 
messages to institutions in other cities requesting emergency storage 
space, according to Laura Lindsay, interim executive director of the 
Louisiana State University Museum of Art. "A lot of work was done to get 
art in safe places before the hurricane came through," she said.

Hildreth said a surprising number of precious artifacts can be repaired 
-- if they aren't stolen.

In 1966, the Arno River flooded and swamped Florence, Italy, a city with 
a distinguished cultural history. About 1,500 artworks, many dating back 
centuries, were disfigured or destroyed.

Thousands of volunteers, dubbed "mud angels" came from around the world 
and worked 10 to 14 hours a day to help save the city's masterpieces.

Hildreth says he is heartened that he has begun to receive similar offers.

"Pages and canvas can dry out," he said. "Mud can be washed off. It's 
painstaking, and it can take decades, but in some cases, it can be done."

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