Open AccessCONDUCT PROCEDURES IN CASE OF THEFT OF ARTEFACTS FROM MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Author(s) -
Adam Grajewski
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
muzealnictwo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2391-4815
pISSN - 0464-1086
DOI - 10.5604/01.3001.0012.1963
Subject(s) - exhibition , documentation , limiting , value (mathematics) , cultural heritage , law , cultural artifact , closing (real estate) , business , political science , internet privacy , history , public relations , computer security , engineering , computer science , archaeology , mechanical engineering , machine learning , programming language
Museum collections very often containartefacts of a significant material value, which are also ofgreat importance for the national heritage. Exhibits listedin a museum inventory belong to the capacious categoryof national goods, which means they are protected by law.Given the whole number of crimes against the culturalheritage, museums are certainly a group of institutions leastlikely to be threatened by it. However, we must not forget,that theft might happen anywhere; even the largest andperfectly safeguarded museum is not free from this type ofdanger. When a museum exhibit gets stolen, the followingprocedure shall be applied: closing all the entrances,informing the guards, checking the security devices, securingthe crime scene and the whole area of an exhibition, limitingan access to the crime scene, informing the supervisors(directors), informing the police, checking all the roomsand the surrounding area, securing the monitoring systemand documentation, having a police report filed, reportingthe loss with the description for putting it in an official database. It seems worthwhile to take measures to increaseboth knowledge and awareness of museum employees ona regular basis, as well as to analyse the patterns of conductin reference to legal regulations and existing procedures.