Hundreds of artworks rescued from Auckland Art Gallery after basement floods
Sunday, 29 January 2023
Hundreds of artworks have had to be relocated after the basement of the Auckland Art Gallery flooded on Friday evening, when torrential rain brought chaos to the city.
Gallery director Kirsten Lacy said they became aware the collection store had flooded at 11pm.
Groundwater came up through the walls and floor of the basement following hours of torrential rain, she said.
The water in the basement had now been removed, but small amounts were continuing to leak from cracks in the concrete floor.
**READ MORE:
* Northland predicted to experience heavy rain Sunday afternoon
* From Auckland's floodwaters of devastation, heroes and acts of kindness emerge
* Economic impact of Auckland floods will be 'many millions', business leaders say
**
A team of 30 had been working Saturday and Sunday to relocate 300 artworks and assess any water damage, she said.
Lacy could not yet say if any art had been damaged, but did not believe they had any major losses.
“It's a lot of water in a collection store, and humidity is not good for a collection, but our climate control system has kicked in and is removing moisture from the air, so we are feeling optimistic that the collection is currently safe.”
“Humidity is the main issue for us,” she said.
Further inspection of the art would continue over the coming days and weeks.
Lacy said if any work was damaged, and required conservation, they had the best team in the country assembled to deal with it.
It was not possible to remove all 9234 artworks stored in the space, so only the artworks at risk were temporarily relocated.
Lacy said unless the rain expected on Sunday was worse than Friday’s downpour, they were confident they could manage any future flooding.
The gallery is set to reopen at 10am Monday, given no further flooding occurred on Sunday evening.