Take a behind-the-scenes glimpse at major artefacts being conserved at the Heritage Conservation Centre in preparation for their eventual display in the National Museum when it re-opens this year.

Hearse of Tan Jiak Kim

“Over the course of nearly 90 years, the hearse had become severely deteriorated. It was missing a wheel, and many parts of the upper portion, which were made up of finely carved wooden panels, had broken into many small pieces. This presented the most challenging aspect of conserving the hearse, because the fragmented nature of the artefact meant that putting it together would be like fixing up an enormous 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle!”

Anchor from the S.S. Empress of Asia

“This anchor was one of three salvaged from the S.S. Empress of Asia, which was sunk by Japanese bombers off Singapore in 1942. It will be put on display for the first time in the National Museum when it re-opens in late 2006. As you can see from the photograph above, the original condition of the anchor was nowhere near suitable for display. The heavyweight question facing our conservators was how best to conserve the heavy anchor given the display, budget and time constraints?”

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