from Reason
Ancient Treasures for Sale
go to article

It has often being opined that the instinct to collect is a selfish one. And the thin line separating the selfish from the greedy can often lead to the wanton destruction and dispersion of heritage artefacts. Perhaps, it may not be too far away that we begin to see a new breed of museums which do not own artefacts from another culture, but will instead seek to borrow.

from The Guardian
Goodbye to all that?
go to article

In the equation between urban development and preservation, a lack of political will and patronage (in terms of funding allocation) is a sure-fire way to tilt the balance away from preservation. This is borne out by the conclusion of the article, which does not appear to bode well for the situation in the UK:

"Not only is conservation unpopular with the government - and English Heritage is losing the argument on the key planning debates - but the organisation senses that the wider climate of opinion has turned against the heritage lobby. It is well aware that even its name is a handicap in its attempts to influence the metropolitan establishment which finds the word 'heritage' deeply off-putting. If they could, they would change it to something less dated."

from BBC News
Killing Fields deal sparks anger
go to article
and
Killing Fields deal hits delay
go to article

When national memories become fair game for foreign commercial exploits, it could signify one of 2 underlying trends - abject poverty or abject callousness. Either way, it does not excuse such a highly idiotic decision in the first instance.

from Archive Awareness Campaign, UK
"Impact Assessment and Evaluation Report" for AAC 2004
go to report (PDF format, 1.52 MB)

A report on the Archive Awareness Campaign 2004 in the UK, previously posted here, has been released. A few interesting points to note in the findings, bearing in mind the UK context:

- Most archives users are above 55 years; and
- Archive users are primarily repeat-users.

With the campaign, there was some very minor success in encouraging younger users. However, the real paid-off seems to be in terms of encourage new users, although repeat-users still predominate.

from IIC Nordic Section
Museum Storage Buildings : Physics and Function

Following Morten Ryhl-Svendsen's original e-mail announcement on the IAQ-Museum list, attached are the 3 English extracts from the postprints:

- "Designing a museum store" by Tim Padfield
(PDF format, 155 kb)

- "Managing collections in store" by Suzanne Keene
(PDF format, 278 kb)

- "Storing objects for future use" by Jonathan Ashley-Smith
(PDF format, 471 kb)

from CNN news
Visible storage catches on in museums
go to article

With the move towards greater access and display of museums' collections, museum displays have adopted what is known as visible storage. Besides the North American museums mentioned in the article, European museums have also long been incorporating such display methods in the overall museum presentation - such as the Victoria and Albert museum, the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers museum (in Oxford). It is also not surprising that museums in Europe have adopted visible storage display methods even before it became "fashionable", if we understand the origin of museums as "curosity cabinets".

Conservation Physics
go to web-site

Tim Padfield, previously retired from the National Museum of Denmark, had put together a revamped web-site / online book looking at physics as applied in the field of conservation of cultural heritage. Topics covered include:

- basic concepts in climate;
- light and photochemistry;
- properties of material;
- air-conditioning and building physics;
- microclimate; and
- sensors and measurement.

from The Guardian
Preserving listed buildings - on computer
go to article

If a building is seen as a bloated artefact, then perhaps a digitised image may sometimes suffice for structures with lesser significance. However, it must surely be understood that a building will not adequately exist outside of its immediate physical context in terms of context and the human scale.

from The New York Times
Sending the F.B.I. to Art School
go to article (PDF format)

It might be that conservation students could well be looking forward to a career as a special agent investigating stolen art:

"When the agency set up the art crime team, it decided to train agents in art styles and conservation." (emphasis added)