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Tucson's Int'l Wildlife Museum up for auction -- animals not included
Source: Tucson Sentinel
By Natalie Robbins, August 15, 2024
Ever dreamed of living in a castle full of taxidermy?
The former site of the International Wildlife Museum is going up for auction. The museum, which opened in 1988 displaying exhibits of taxidermied wild animals, quietly closed its doors last December 31, but interested parties can place a bid on the building in an online auction beginning September 23.
The three-story 51,331-square-foot building, 4800 W. Gates Pass Rd. on Tucson's West Side, is styled as a stone castle, and comes complete with a 96-seat theater, commercial kitchen, cafeteria, exhibit halls, conference rooms, and offices. A listing from the commercial real estate company Ten-X suggests the building could be repurposed as a new museum, educational space, spa and retreat, medical building, treatment center “and so much more.”
For 35 years, the International Wildlife Museum held more than 400 species of mammals, birds and insects, including a rhinoceros caught by President Theodore Roosevelt and a wooly mammoth. The taxidermied animals were relocated upon the museum’s closure, according to a post on its website. The operation — run by the Safari Club International Foundation — attracted controversy, with critics saying it afforded wealthy shooting safari participants with a tax write-off when they donated animals they shot and killed overseas.
The starting bid for the building is listed at $1.
The three-story 51,331-square-foot building, 4800 W. Gates Pass Rd. on Tucson's West Side, is styled as a stone castle, and comes complete with a 96-seat theater, commercial kitchen, cafeteria, exhibit halls, conference rooms, and offices. A listing from the commercial real estate company Ten-X suggests the building could be repurposed as a new museum, educational space, spa and retreat, medical building, treatment center “and so much more.”
For 35 years, the International Wildlife Museum held more than 400 species of mammals, birds and insects, including a rhinoceros caught by President Theodore Roosevelt and a wooly mammoth. The taxidermied animals were relocated upon the museum’s closure, according to a post on its website. The operation — run by the Safari Club International Foundation — attracted controversy, with critics saying it afforded wealthy shooting safari participants with a tax write-off when they donated animals they shot and killed overseas.
The starting bid for the building is listed at $1.
Link to full article