In 1989 a collection of South American Quaternary mammals, housed in the Rodrigo Botet Palaeontological Museum of Valencia, Spain was moved to new accommodation. This move was precipitated by the discovery of serious structural and other damage to the 15th century Arab building in which i t had been exhibited and housed since 1908. The collection numbered nearly 50,000 specimens including seventeen edentate and other mammals, three thousand skeletal fragments and 43,000 Recent molluscs. The rescue operation was divided into three phases: planning and funding acquisition; treatment, packing, transportation and unpacking of specimens; development of new exhibition in a temporary location in Valencia.