As powerful aftershocks continued to rattle southeastern New Zealand on Tuesday, University of Canterbury officials tallied up the damage Saturday’s earthquake did to one of the Southern Hemisphere’s most important collections of Greek and Roman antiquities.
The 7.1-strength earthquake, which struck 25 miles west of the city of Christchurch, on New Zealand’s southern island, toppled buildings through the country’s second-largest city and seriously injured two people. No deaths were reported.
The University of Canterbury, with 20,000 students, was the hardest hit of the two institutions of higher education in the Christchurch area, according to university officials and news reports. Most notable was damage ranging from “minor chipping to substantial breakages” to the James Logie Memorial Collection of ancient art, said a news release posted on the university’s Web site. The collection, which is valued at several million dollars, includes some 250 items, among them ancient pottery, inscriptions, and sculpture from the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
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