Museum decluttering to take several years

Emily BellBBC Jersey
News imageBBC Helen is wearing a dark maroon sweater and standing indoors. Behind her is an old wooden cart with large spoked wheels.BBC
Helen Kergozou from Jersey Heritage said the charity has to be "very careful"

It will take several years to declutter Jersey Heritage's museum collections, according to the charity's senior registrar.

The collections were started by the Société Jersiaise in 1873 and have continued growing for more than 150 years.

Ms Kergozou added "we're being very careful" and "every single item that we're putting on a deaccessioning list is going to be individually reviewed so that means going back through all the historic records".

News imageA room full of items.
The charity is carrying out an extensive review of its items

There are more than 300,000 museum pieces, including 199 chairs and 10 bathtubs.

Ms Kergozou said some items had come to them "with no real provenance, where we don't really know where it came from" but there was "a very careful review process to make sure that we're not potentially going to get rid of something that shouldn't be going".

She added: "It's not to say that we don't want to have a reserve collection even if it might not necessarily fit with the displays right now."

"So some things will get donated and might stay here for a couple of decades before an exhibition comes around that they might be worth going out on."

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