Glacier Garden in Lucerne opens ‘Treasury of Ice’ exhibit

The Glacier Garden in Lucerne, Switzerland, has launched a new exhibition titled ‘Treasury of Ice’ to showcase artifacts emerging from melting Swiss glaciers. The collection includes a diverse range of items, from ancient relics like a Roman-era statuette and an ancient hunting bow to modern debris such as a crushed mayonnaise tube, a discarded wine bottle, and an alpinist’s cracked helmet.

Andreas Burri, director of the Glacier Garden, noted that the exhibit serves as an archive of what is being lost due to rapid melting. The display comes as glaciologists report that Switzerland lost 5.5% of its total glacier volume this year, marking the second-largest decline on record.

Beyond physical objects, the ice acts as an archaeological vault containing microparticles of pollen, greenhouse gases, and radioactive material from mid-20th-century nuclear tests, as well as soot from historical forest fires.