Buddy’s going to be frozen out
Lion will chill as part of museum’s big move
Paisley Museum’s beloved Buddy the Lion mascot is to go from ‘Grrr’ to ‘Brrr’ as bosses put him in the deep freeze as part of the venue’s £42m refurbishment.
Amazingly, Buddy will be frozen to a temperature of as low as minus 35 degrees in a bid to kill of any bugs and beasties that might have set up home in his mane and fur.
He will then be carefully defrosted and brought back up to room temperature and put on display at the museum’s store, the Secret Collection, at 9 High Street for the four-year duration of the refurbishment.
Sean Kelly, Paisley Museum’s conservations and collections manager for the move, said: “As part fo the decant we’ll be moving everything down to the Secret Collection.
“That opened at the beginning of the year and everything that went in there was frozen beforehand.
“The whole process is to eliminate any risk of pest damage in the objects.
“This is for taxidermy or any of the organic materials, for example some of the looms.
“Thera are just some different types of museum pests that can be found. In wood it could be woodworm for example, it could be moths.
“For Buddy there could be moths, various types of pest.”
For security reasons, Mr Kelly would not say where the freezing operation is to take place.
“Basically, what happened is it’s a freezer unit that we put the objects into and then it drops down to minus 30 or minus 35 degrees,” he said.
“And then it’s the drop in temperature that actually kills off any eggs if there’s anything like that.”
Buddy and all the other frozen objects will then be brought back up to normal temperature as part of a gradual process.
Mr Kelly added: “If you bring them back up to quickly it can damage the object.
“The whole process normally takes about a week and then once it’s done they’ll all move down to the secret collection.”
Buddy has for many decades been a favourite of families on visits to the museum, who enjoy seen his frozen-in-time roar as he looks down on them from a pedestal.
Also being frozen is the museum’s large ornithology and entomology collection.
“We’ve got a lot of birds and bugs!” Mr Kelly said.
“The whole move will take place over a three-month period.
“And that will include not just natural history but everything in the museum. But not necessarily all of it will need freezing, such as paintings.”
Drew Metcalfe has been drafted in by Paisley Museum as project manager for the move.
“I’m basically the co-ordinating the museum staff,” he said.
“I’ll be helping Sean on the decant programme side, just making sure we hit our targets. “It starts on August 27. “We’ll actually start in the museum with an appointed decant contractor. It’s a big job, it’s three months worth of work.
“We’re on programme and really keen to keep the momentum and start the process.”
The whole process is to eliminate any risk of pest damage Sean Kelly