Maritime Museum asks €850,000 from state to secure US exhibition
The Estonian Maritime Museum (Meremuuseum) is applying to the National Heritage Board (Muinsuskaitseamet) to provide state support for damage liability to the value of just over €850,000 in respect of an American National History Museum exhibit it wants to bring to Estonia.
The exhibition is planned for show at the hangars at the Seaplane Harbor Museum, from mid-October to mid-April next year, and introduces people to the ocean floor, and state-of-the-art research technologies.
Board member at the museum Urmas Dresen presented an application to the National Heritage Board for the provision of state funds, together with an expert assessment of the exhibition and an outline of the logistics of getting it to Estonia.
This is standard procedure in international exhibitions, whereby damage liability is written in government regulations.
The regulation states that the payment of damage liability may be applied for if the monetary value of the exhibition is at least €65,000. However, the value of this exhibition is a little over €850,000.
Dresen told ERR that the process of bringing the exhibition - about the ocean - to Estonia began two years ago, and involved him first having to go to the U.S. to see the exhibition.
"The American Museum of Natural History is such a large museum, with about 1,000 employees, about 200 of whom are scientists. They have made various research expeditions around the world, and this exhibition is based on their own new materials," Dresen said.
Dresen explains that the exhibition in the U.S. was opened a little more than three years ago and the maritime expeditions which led to its creation were done five to six years ago.
"Why are we saying that the ocean is 'unknown'? Because the luminous creatures, plants, fish, the share of these fluorescent organisms in the exhibition is significant; not a lot is known about them so far," Dresen said.
He added that exhibition of Estonian researchers' findings from the Baltic Sea will be simultaneously opened.
The "Unknown Ocean" exhibition consists of showcases, graphic panels, exhibits, structural details and audio-video equipment. The maritime museum's website says that the exhibition also has so-called hands-on solutions, which can be used to shape the seabed, for example.
The exhibits are to be transported from Heilbronn, Germany, using six full trailers, with the artefacts packed in special transport boxes.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino
