Fifteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Museum councils and international standards institutions have unanimously agreed and spoken widely about Cultural Heritage Preparedness and Response and specifically salvage plans in symposiums and reports. A salvage plan or list is vital to any Disaster Preparedness and Risk Management objective for many different organizations but it may be even more important from a museum perspective as the site, buildings and artefacts are the reasons for its existence. Disaster Preparedness strategies must include mitigation and adaptation steps. It is therefore absolutely necessary for every museum and cultural site to be equipped with salvage lists. A salvage list is essentially a priorities list and is meant to be a guide. It should include objects; note their location and other specific information such as security and necessary personnel. An economist said making a “grab list” forces institutions to rank and value their holdings. From this understanding, we can acknowledge that some objects within a collection or space are more valuable than others. There have been several ideas from the many museum councils on how these lists should be developed on value. Value differs based on varying degrees of value: there is cultural, historical, personal value, loans, religious, economic, vulnerability to an external source of a disaster and even material. This paper explores what is the correct way of establishing a salvage list disaster plan and what is needed for this process.