Last Tuesday, residents of Fribourg came across something rather unlikely on their way to work: an eleven-metre-long, 1,650-kilo stuffed whale suspended ten metres above the ground, hanging from a crane between the buildings on Avenue de Pérolles. To remove it from the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle, where it had been on display since the late 19th century, they had to cut a hole in the building’s façade, wrap it carefully, secure it with straps and lift it with a crane before placing it onto the flatbed of a lorry. Six hundred metres further down, the future museum building on Route des Arsenaux awaited it.
The northern right whale is the museum’s best-known exhibit and was previously moved once, in 1897. This time, it is being moved to the first floor of the new building, which will not open to the public until 2028. For the time being, the whale is already in its new home. The new museum will cost 65.5 million francs.
The operation lasted a few hours and was carried out with remarkable precision. Onlookers who stopped in the street to watch ended up applauding when the animal was hoisted onto the lorry without a scratch. In Switzerland, even moving a whale that’s over a century old is done methodically. Although you wouldn’t have seen that bit coming – cutting a hole in the façade to get it out.