“We’ve got the vast majority of the building open to the public and cleared and safe for occupation.

“We are now cleaning the remaining objects and spaces, mainly in the Māori and Pacific galleries, and this work is going to take quite some further months because it’s quite complex.

“The source in the ceiling above the Māori Court is proving extraordinarily difficult to solve because of the difficult geometry of where it is. The space where the asbestos is is incredibly narrow, and we can’t get a person in there,” Reeves said.

Standing on the museum’s roof, Reeves pointed out the patchwork of construction eras that make up the 95‑year‑old building: the original 1929 structure, a 1959 extension, and the 2007 dome addition. The older sections, he said, contain a maze of roof forms, voids and service areas where asbestos was discovered, particularly above the Māori Court and behind the World War I sanctuary.

“It was through the restoration of the stained‑glass window over the 1929 foyer that we discovered asbestos up in the ceiling and rafters, which has given us quite a headache over the last few months.

“It looks as if we are going to dismantle part of the 1929 ceiling, section by section, moving around the Māori Court to draw the remaining asbestos material out. These are remnants of asbestos from a removal that happened in the late 1980s, early 1990s, done under different conditions and standards,” he said.

Decades of added pipework, air‑conditioning systems and other plant, much of it now at the end of its life, have further complicated the clean-up.

Even once asbestos removal is complete, some galleries will remain closed while the museum undertakes major upgrades, including new air‑conditioning and electrical systems and heritage restoration for the museum building’s centennial in 2029.

Partial reopenings may be possible as work progresses, but the museum does not expect the spaces to be fully open, including the Māori and Pacific galleries, until 2029.

“This is our moment of breaking eggs to make an omelette,” Reeves said.

While thousands of objects in the affected galleries were not contaminated, about 500 to 600 require individual cleaning to remove microscopic asbestos fibres.

Among the objects are the Hillary portrait, the 17m war canoe, Te Toki a Tapiri, six World War I propellers from fighter aircraft hanging over a stairwell, and one of New Zealand’s oldest wooden carvings, Tangonge, also known as the Kaitāia Lintel.

The cleaning process involves teams of asbestos contractors and trained conservation staff in protective suits, including disposable undies, and breathing apparatus. They use specialist brushes, vacuums and airflow units to treat each item before conducting disturbance testing to ensure they are safe.

Reeves said cleaning objects can be quite quick because the asbestos is largely inert and doesn’t chemically react with surfaces. Some objects take a few minutes, but bigger objects, like a Pacific waka with a sail, would take a week.

“These are often microscopic fibres, and very few of them, but we need to treat all of those items with great care and make sure we do the cleaning thoroughly,” he said.

After a request from Far North iwi Te Rarawa for the lintel to be returned to Kaitāia, it was removed from a display case that wasn’t fully sealed and cleaned before making the journey north last October for a ceremony to mark the centennial of the iwi’s marae.

Carved from totara and dating to the 14th to 16th centuries, Tangonge was discovered in 1920 when Lake Tangonge, between Kaitāia and Ahipara, was drained.

The lintel has travelled to the Far North before and is currently on display at Kaitāia’s Te Ahu Museum and Library. It will return to Auckland Museum sometime before its centennial in 2029.

The full and partial closures have led to a forecast 10% dip in visitor numbers, said Reeves, while international visitors are tracking better than forecast. Local visitors dropped through mid-last year due to publicity about the museum closure.

Reeves said the museum has spent about $4.6m so far on asbestos testing, clean-up and compliance, with a further $5m to $7m expected before contractors complete the work later this year.

“That’s not scheduled money we were wanting to spend, but it’s necessary,” he said.

The museum has been drawing on its cash reserves, he said, “but we’re now in a position where the bucket is running a bit dry” at a time of rising building, energy and insurance costs, and a flat economy affecting commercial revenue.

That prompted a restructure last September to cut the staffing budget by 10%, resulting in the loss of 32 roles, with 17 redundancies and the rest through unfilled vacancies.

The museum has also lodged three insurance claims related to the asbestos, but the outcome remains uncertain. Insurance brokers believe there is a reasonable chance of success for one of them.

Reeves said the museum has a $12m pool of bequests, but they are tightly specified, and the board is reluctant to undermine the donors’ intentions by diverting those funds to the asbestos problem.

One upside for the museum has been the strong performance of its family‑focused Sharks exhibition, which has drawn large crowds paying up to $59 for a family pass.

Reeves said Aucklanders love the museum and have shown enormous goodwill.

“Many people are concerned we might have financial difficulty and are saying, ‘What can we do?’

“A simple thing people can do is support the museum. We have had a shocking year, and seeing a busy museum really lifts the spirit,” Reeves said.

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.