As it turned out when work with handpicking the Technical Museum’s items out of the landslide, Guðlaug Vala Smáradóttir, one of the clean-up members, knew the museum and its items. She was made the head of the operation since she knew quite well where the items had been located inside the buildings. Furthermore, she witnessed when the landslide hit the museums buildings and therefore, she had a gut feeling of where the items might have ended up. They work their way through the landslide and fill up fish tubs with the items they find. Guðlaug emphasises that the items must be put in a shelter as soon as possible. The items were sorted, the ones that were completely destroyed and considered unsalvageable were put aside, nothing was tossed. Guðlaug thought that it was not up to them to evaluate which items should be kept and which items were too severely damaged so they salvaged everything.
Guðný Ósk Guðnadóttir interviews Guðlaug Vala Smáradóttir on July 14th 2021. In the custody of the guarantor of the project.