Walrus weighing a tonne is winched into place

The Horniman Museum and Gardens waved off its walrus today, on his first trip for more than 100 years. The walrus – famously overstuffed by his Victorian taxidermist and weighing around a ton – is on his way to the Turner Contemporary in Margate.

He will spend the summer taking pride of place in a new exhibition, Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing, 25 May – 15 September 2013.

The walrus – probably a young male – was bought by Museum founder Frederick Horniman in the early 1890’s and has moved no more than 25 feet since the Horniman opened in 1901.