Yorkshire Museum gets a makeover

When Yorkshire gets its county museum back at noon today, the handsome classical building, set in York's riverside gardens, will have been taken to pieces and put back together again in just a year Photograph: Lee Bell/PR

The museum's Roman and Viking collections are back in new displays. Treasures include the marvellous Coppergate Helmet, the best Anglo-Saxon helmet ever found – discovered when a digger blade hit it during the construction of a shopping centre Photograph: Joel Chester Fildes/PR

Objects from the Vale of York hoard, part of the museum's stunning archaeological collections. The museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in 1830, one of the first purpose-built museums in the country. Originally its collection was rich in geology and natural history: in the new displays you can see a seven-metre-long Ichtyosaur fossil found on the Yorkshire coast, the most complete skeleton of a now-extinct New Zealand Moa bird, and even a meteorite that terrified railway workmen who saw it fall to earth on March 14, 1881 Photograph: Trustees of the British Museum./PR

A fourth-century head of Constantine. The rebuild of the Ashmolean in Oxford cost £49m and the Herbert in Coventry £20m, but the thrifty Yorkshire Museum managed the job on £2m by calling on the talents of its own staff Photograph: York Museums Trust/PR

A close-up detail of the Middleham jewel (1400-1499), an exquisite medieval piece which may have been commissioned to protect a queen in childbirth Photograph: Joel Chester Fildes/PR

Middleham ring from the 14th or 15th century Photograph: Joel Chester Fildes/PR

A Roman statue of Mars (300-350AD). 'There's nobody in the place, from the shop staff to the chief executive, who hasn't picked up a hammer or at least a brush at some point in the project,' head curator Andrew Morrison said. 'It's been emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting, but we've all come out of it with surprising new skills. I now know I can knock down a wall, rebuild it and then plaster it - who'd have guessed?' Photograph: York Museums Trust/PR

A detail from the ninth-century Gilling sword. 'We had to get the professionals in on jobs like wiring and plumbing,' he said, 'but otherwise it's amazing what we found we could do ourselves' Photograph: PR