Museum commercial director Murray Bayly said recently many factors were assessed in deciding the extent of insurance cover.
Many items in the museum’s collections were impossible to replace but, in the worst-case scenario, the institution would have $20 million to consider its options.
Since he had taken up his post six years ago, he had increased the overall collection cover from $10 million to $20 million.
The museum’s buildings, including the main Great King St complex, are covered by more than $123 million in replacement insurance, a museum report shows.
The museum’s insurance also covered up to $5 million for incoming exhibitions from elsewhere, and up to $5 million for Otago Museum items being similarly sent away.
To greatly increase the collection cover, the current overall premium of more than $267,500 might have to be doubled or trebled, he said.
"What we’ve tried to do is rather than investing in insurance, we’re trying to invest in building improvement to reduce the risk."
Half of the museum complex was already covered by sprinklers and, if money became available, museum organisers would spend a further
$1 million to fully extend the system.
Fire cell protection barriers separating different parts of the museum had been upgraded.
"Earthquake would be the one area where potentially we could have a total loss," Mr Bayly said.
He was "pretty confident" in the museum’s fire protection as the city’s main fire station was " just three minutes away".
