"How many people will want to come to New Orleans at the salary we pay? ... When we go to rehire people, it's going to be hard," he says.

Many staff members had worked at the museum for a decade or more and were a close-knit group, working as a team even as they prepared for Katrina: They took paintings off the walls that were near skylights and put others on wooden blocks in basement storage areas. Some sculptures were brought inside and some others — including the Mardi Gras beads — were tied to trees.

Several workers — maintenance and security crew, along with their families — took refuge in the building and stayed there in the turbulent first week after the storm. They were so determined to protect the treasures from possible looters, they refused to leave when they had the chance.

Some stayed downstairs, while others kept vigil on the main floor. They had already stocked up on food and filled giant garbage cans and ice chests with water. They watched the news on a television powered by a generator until they were finally ordered out by the National Guard.

On the Saturday after the storm, Sullivan, the deputy director, finally made her way to the building in a harrowing nine-hour journey in a two-boat convoy, passing floating bodies along the way. She was accompanied by M-16 rifle-toting security guards, mostly former New York City police working for a firm that had been hired by the museum's insurer.

The security force remained there for six weeks. Two Orleans Parish sheriff's deputies now guard the museum.

Sullivan says she was thrilled at what she found. "I could have just screamed," she says. "Everything was pristine."

Though there was no flooding in the galleries, the ground floor had cracks that caused some water to seep in the storage and office areas. Only one sculpture, a piece of furniture, two Kachina dolls and a pair of Japanese screens were damaged but the inventory is still being taken.

Only a fraction of the 40,000 or so pieces in the museum's $250 million collection is normally on display. The museum also remains a temporary home to about 1,000 works from private collectors.

The museum needs to make repairs valued at more than $6 million, including fixing the huge freight elevator, waterproofing the basement, landscaping, new outside lights and other improvements in the sculpture garden. Most of those costs will be covered by insurance or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The public will be able to walk around the sculpture garden next month, but the museum won't be open until March 1, Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras.