Councillor Mike Ross, leader of Hull City Council, said: “This is one of the most important and fragile objects in the museum’s collection, and it’s fantastic to see it return to its rightful place.
“The whale’s story will be told in new and exciting ways, helping visitors appreciate the significance of this species.”
The juvenile North Atlantic right whale is the largest item at the museum and was caught with its mother near New York in 1907.
The skeleton was gifted to the city by the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge.
It belongs to a species that is now critically endangered, with fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales believed to survive worldwide.
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