Demolition work at the Pennsylvania University (UPENN) has raised fear for some precious and ancient artifacts at Penn Museum. The authorities decided to shift them elsewhere following concerns over their fragility. A 23-story medical office tower and 850-car parking garage is being demolished to give way to a hospital pavilion, which will be constructed soon.

The Penn Museum conserves 1 million historical items and receives more than 160,000 visitors a year. The museum preserves artifacts from many excavation sites across the world, including several mummies, a Sphinx, pottery and other delicate treasures. To avoid the negative impact of vibration from demolition work, the objects at museum will be reordered. The university officials expect demolition project to come to an end by August. That means the vibrations will continue to shake the museum for quite some time.

“You have so many objects and they’re represented and displayed in so many ways, and they all have their own unique fragilities”, said Andrew Smyth, a Columbia professor of civil engineering and consultant at the project. The measures to protect the objects applied so far were switching several glass shelves to wood or acrylic boards. Besides, an Egyptian tomb chapel of Kaipure was dismounted, which was brought to the museum in 1904 and the Islamic Near East Gallery was shut down. The proposed changes for June are removal of two five centuries old Buddhist murals made of mud plaster.

Some of the items in museum are guarded by museum staff; they get cell phone alerts from vibration sensors when the pieces are at risk. When vibration becomes severe enough to cause harm, the demolition superintendent is asked to reduce the intensity of the construction work.

In the process of removal and relocation of some of the museum items, museum staff has discovered many pieces which remained packed for long since first brought to the museum.