Traffic damages famous works of art
Valuable works of art in the Ashmolean Museum are being damaged due to vibrations from passing traffic, it has emerged.
According to a BBC Radio Oxford news report earlier this week, road works and general traffic on nearby Beaumont street are causing weaknesses and cracks in the museum's famous art collection, particularly the extensive collection of pottery and sculptures.
The volume of traffic on Beaumont Street has greatly increased since a one-way system was put in place to cope with the high volume of traffic in Oxford by diverting it out of other areas of the city centre, such as Broad Street and Cornmarket street. Beaumont Street therefore carries a large proportion of Oxford's incoming traffic. Recent road repairs in the area have also added to the strain.
The Ashmolean Museum, reputedly the oldest museum in the world, is one of Oxford's main tourist attractions and houses several unique collections of both Western and Eastern art, including a set of fragile early Chinese ceramics, Islamic pottery, Japanese paintings, Indian sculpture and one of the world's finest collections of drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo.
8th Jun 2001