Preventive conservation

The fundamental concern of museums is to ensure that their collections will be available for future generations. Preventive conservation minimizes the deterioration of museum objects by controlling the environment in which they are exhibited or stored. Consequently, in the long-term, it is more effective and decreases considerably the cost of interventive conservation.

However, preventive conservation requires a consistent approach - a continuous evaluation of how the collections are stored, managed and exhibited. This approach is achieved via the assessment of risks to the collection and the management of these risks which lead to a comprehensive proposal for the conservation management of the collection.

Conservation risk assessment

This is the analysis of the magnitude of all risks affecting the collection. Ten agents of deterioration can cause damage to the collection and each is subdivided into three types (sometimes less) according to their severity and frequency of occurrence, as is shown in the following table [Adapted from Waller R. (1994)]. The purpose of a risk assessment is to numerically assess the risks to collections that come from various threats ranging from earthquakes at one extreme to dust accumulation at the other.

Risk management

Risk management concerns budget allocation in a way that minimizes methodically the overall risk for the museum collection. The risks that threaten the collection are compared in relation to their severity in order to prioritize the necessary actions for the preservation of the collection for a specific period of time. 

What we undertake:

In collaboration with a series of experienced partners (museologists, archaeologists, architects, web developers and specialists in the application of museum equipment), we undertake:

• Conservation risk assessment studies for museum collections.
• The establishment of appropriate (micro)climates for collections in storage and display.
• Consultancy and the installation of appropriate museum equipment adjusted to the unique environment of the collection.
• The cataloguing, arrangement and condition survey of museum stores.
• Hands-on conservation of a range of materials.
• The promotion of research (for more visit: www.museumscollectionscare.eu/en)