Introduction
Museum management is a profession in which offers more than just a junkyard for storage of old relics in a hidden wardrobe. The concept that museum is a storage place for objects are slowly being replaced by a recreation space, research centre, knowledge centre. Museums are not just repositories. They are places where collections are interpreted for the public through exhibits and related educational programs. How museums interpret their collections changes over time with the emergence of new techniques, scholarship, and viewpoints.
In accordance, museum management must follow a code of ethics in or order to achieve their goals at the end, forming a clear and transparent voice in which the public can gain awareness to what they are doing.
Professional ethics per se consists in searching for common answers to the questions everyone encounters in his or her professional practice, notably to those questions that cannot be answered by turning to existing rules and regulations or to the general norms prevailing in the community. Professional ethics presupposes the existence of an identifiable profession, but at the same time contributes to define a profession.
Museum ethics is a form of professional ethics. Professional ethics is the offshoot of general moral norms adopted by members of the same profession, who may be identified as a group. Strictly speaking ethics is concerned with theory, which is, contemplating as to what is right and just in a given situation.
The International Council of Museums defines the museum profession under article 5 of its Statutes as consisting of 'all of the personnel of museums or related institutions who have received a specialized technical or academic training or who possess an equivalent practical experience, and who respect a fundamental code of professional ethics'. In this respect it is important to note that many codes attempt to define the museum profession by putting up a partition against closely related fields of activity with conflicting interests, such as (art) trade. Museum codes unanimously exclude art trade from the museum profession.
Summary
Set Sail and Collect like pirates
Museums must be aware that in an age where information is exploding as an accelerated level. They cannot readily without judgement increase their threshold of collections quickly.
Many museums faces financial crisis in which is due to their management of collections. Facing difficulties, one can make uncertain judgements in which affects the trusts of the public.
In United States, The Milwaukee Art Museum, the museum has at least a $20 million shortfall that is forcing it to pursue something virtually unheard of in the art world -- offering up its collection as a guarantee for a loan. In Arizona, The $1 million sale of museum artifacts by a financially troubled museum in northern Arizona is sending shock waves through Utah's own museum community and leading to concerns the same thing could happen to cash-strapped museums.
This approach would violate ethical standards of the Association of Art Museum Directors, whose published guidelines caution that "the collections a museum holds in public trust do not represent financial assets that may be converted to cash for operating or capital costs or pledged as collateral for loans."
Collections are looted internationally
The J Paul Getty Museum, one of the world's largest and best endowed art collections, faces a fresh blow to its reputation following the publication of internal documents suggesting it ignored warnings that up to half of its highest profile antiquities acquisitions were looted from ruins in Italy. Know as early as 1985.
Sellers based in Thailand and Singapore are selling parts from Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia - the two countries in South East Asia which have not been signatory to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. It is suspected that most artifacts illegally excavated by looters around Asia are transited through Singapore and Bangkok. In such, it raises controversy in which how governments could allow loopholes to take place, allowing such criminal activities to transact.
Even British Museum faces international furor in which most of their collections come from looting and plundering that took place during their Britain’s empire.
A profession has the responsibility to take the lead in setting the ethical standards by which its members are governed. The museum profession should set the example for governments, private collectors, and dealers with respect to all museum collections. This includes incorporating into museum acquisition policies the sense of such international conventions as the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
Preservation of Collections
Preservation work in a museum is deem as the essence in which collections will sustain through time and proven a valuable asset to the public. Conservators in Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge face a huge dilemma
when a visitor tripped and fell down the stairs, smashing into three 17th century Chinese vases worth 500,000 pounds. The vases were smashed into hundreds of pieces. Conservators decided to repair the artifacts and showpiece them in relation to problems faced by museum professionals in handling exhibitions and caring of collections.
However, conservation practices vary across the world. In certain codes, restoration and conservation works are to be reached through minimal changes under conditions that collections are irreversible once changes are made to it. In china, many museums without following doctrines altered their collections in order to boost collections that are ready to be exhibited. Much of the time, porcelains were painted directly; causing damages in the long run, due to the chemistry involved causing burn and tears to the relics.
However, many museums around the world face the same issues daily: lack of funds. Without proper professional training of staffs and usage of technology to prevent the definite erosion of relics, many museums face uncertainty in their collections.
Museum is community.
Many times, we cannot reject the fact that the museums are serving the public and not a stand alone institution in which they can overwrite decisions. However, curators run a difficult situation in which decision made by the boards overwrite proper managements. Many a times, museums face problems that were accumulated through bad managements by boards. The public does not know of the activities within the museums until actions were taken. We can see clearly from the restoration of the lake in Yuan Ming Yuan, Beijing, as well as other museums which sell their collections without the consent of the public. Much of the time, public furors were splashed forward, causing scandals to be made known by the media.
Conclusion
Museums should have a proper standard operating procedures in which interactivity between the institution be made known.
The museum should made public that they are holders of the countries’ collections in trusts on behalf of the public/society. Relics and collections are reversible and irreplaceable. Once lost, the national identity in which the dissemination of knowledge will be much aggravated.
Museums should focus on public service, bringing in communication at levels in which transparency can take place. With public service offered at a higher level, museums can expect better performances through visits and interaction with the community. This will help to encourage people to explore collections for inspirations, learning and enjoyment.
Museums should also consult and involve communities, users and supporters. This way, the museums can understand how they can improve the situations. At the same time, the public will be more will informed of the situations in which the museums face.
Museums should acquire items honestly and responsibly. This could prevent unwanted loss of collections and public shame. In the Cases of looting, Museums should readily adopt new policies in which to put a curb to unwanted trading to take place in the future. While it seems unlikely that these cases will be settled anytime soon, there is a growing trend among museums to return art objects and artifacts to their countries of origin after ascertaining that the works were stolen. They should safeguard the long term public interest in the collections. Guidelines stipulated should show that curators should "respect the interests" of the communities from which objects of cultural value originate. And in an implicit admission of the dubious nature of some past acquisitions, it urges them to recognize that others may have a "stronger claim to certain items" than themselves. As the saying goes: “We are to be a repository for artifacts, not a clearinghouse,"
In order to improve situations, many museums stood down guidelines such as: reinvigorate thinking about the process of creating exhibitions, establish a system for regularly reviewing exhibition planning guidelines in order to gain a better stand or what and how they manage their collections and museums.
Museums should also recognise the interests of the people who made, used, owned, collected or gave items in the collections. Collections do not belong to one man’s decision board. The people involved should also have a say, especially donors. One would not like to see what was donated to be sold due to financial problems face. In doing so, it is best to identify accountability at all levels of the Institution to adhere from mistakes.
In conclusion, As Sinatra sang, "you can't have one without the other." Ethically, a museum must know and face what its actions have upon the public. Even so, it is not as simple as that. Collections are never permanent. It is always a fight against time before they disintegrate. That is the reason why Museum managers as professionals should always consider ethically what their actions will do and hold responsible for the future generations of museum professionals, the public and the nation.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Code of Ethics: Museum Management
Thursday, May 31, 2007
3000 Year-old Jinsha Coming to Life
| source: china.org.cn 3000 Year-old Jinsha Coming to Life |
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The archeological site of Jinsha located in the western suburbs of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, is widely believed to have been the capital of the Shu Kingdom close to 3,000 years ago. After some burial grounds and sacrifice emplacements were recently discovered, a renewed effort was made to excavate Jinsha. This vigor has now revealed the outlines of the cemetery, living areas, palace remains and sacrifice grounds.
Lying only 50 kilometers away from the famed Sanxingdui, Jinsha rose to prominence around 1000 BC and shared similar origins with Sanxingdui as can be seen from similar burial objects although unlike its hallowed neighbor, Jinsha had no city wall. So far, artifacts made from ivory, jade, bronze, gold and stone have been found at the site.
Sanxingdui flourished from 3000 BC to about 800 BC, markedly earlier than Jinsha culture. Due to this, some historians have theorized that Jinsha's culture and influence succeeded Sanxingdui's after the latter was brought low by natural disasters.
Over 800 tombs found
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Experts revealed the complete excavation of the 1,000-square-meter palace area lying to the north of the site, next to the religious ceremony ground to the northeast. The residential and cemetery areas took up the central parts of the site. The diameter of Jinsha, at its apogee, would have comprised 5 square kilometers and the individual functionality of different areas speaks of the fairly high level of development attained by the city.
Upon investigation, it was found that all the tombs faced a southeasterly direction and DNA testing has revealed that all the excavated corpses had been less then 30 years old at the time of their death, a fact attributed to frequent warfare.
Each skeleton was surrounded by potteries and jade objects. An oddity when looking in ancient funerary customs is the presence of a jade knife in each body's chest, a very rare custom for the time.
Another rarity was discovered when a tomb was found to contain two skeletons, buried side-by-side. Soil samples revealed that the area was turned from a living area into a cemetery although archaeologists are baffled as to why.
Special tomb No. M1901
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Zhang Qing, director of the Chengdu Municipal Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute's Jinsha Site Archaeological Station, explained that "when we first found this tomb, we noticed it was different from the others -- it's larger than those surrounding it, being 2.5 meters in length and 1.4 meters in width. It contains peculiar articles, unlike those in other tombs. Most of the bodies in Jinsha were well-preserved but the one in M1901 was burned before burial, something very rarely seen." Zhang surmised that this represented an ancient sacrificial ceremony in which leaves and other objects were set ablaze on the body of the deceased.
With the knowledge they now hold and although they cannot pinpoint the person's identity, archaeologists can reveal that this tomb did not contain a commoner but is also too small to have contained the remains of a prince or nobleman. Thus, Zhang explained, the man may well have been an ancient sorcerer or respected artisan.
Sorcerers conducted all of Jinsha's sacrificial ceremonies and by the luxurious items found in the sacrificial areas of Jinsha, it can be seen that sorcerers were held in high esteem.
The other conjecture is that the unknown man could be a high-level craftsman, who were highly praised at the time for their unique skills, Zhang explained.
Experts will now use "carbon 14" dating test to determine the precise age of the M1901 skeleton and his tomb.
Rare bronzewares
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Archaeologists were originally baffled as to whether these were ornaments, toys or served another purpose. For his part, Zhang held the belief that these articles were simply funereal objects which served as a status symbol for the deceased they accompanied.
Besides these miniature tools, other crossed bronze artifacts were unearthed, with the particularity of having been cast in a wholly original manner for the time.
"Ancient people of Jinsha had discovered a new method of casting bronze, known as piece-mould casting method. A model of the object to be cast was first made and turned into a mould. The mould would then have sections cut away from it to release the original model. The sections would then be individually strengthened with fire before being reassembled to form a solid mould ready for casting. If the object to be cast was a vessel, a core would be placed inside the mould to ensure the vessel's cavity," Zhang Qing explained.
Jade chisel
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The jade chisel, measuring around ten centimeters long and in good condition, is the second of its kind in the Jinsha Ruins. Its discovery will be highly valuable in providing research on sacrificial vessels of the time.
3,000-year-old bark-roofed house
The ruins also revealed remains of houses. Ancient houses were worn down to their foundations when archaeologists arrived but the humid climate around Chengdu allowed the wooden frames and bark roofs to be partially preserved, explained experts.
One house had covered around 30 square meters, with a roof wholly made of bark measuring 7 by 3 meters. After analyzing the wood, the house was thought to have been built towards the end of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC - c. 1100 BC).
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin, April 3, 2007)
Salvage Begins on Sunken Ship off South China Coast
| source: china.org.cn Salvage Begins on Sunken Ship off South China Coast |
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The rectangular structure was pulled by a 900-ton tug to a position just above the ill-fated ship. At 11:45 AM., it was released and began to slowly sink.
Weighing 530 tons, the double-box structure is 35.7 meters long, 14.4 meters wide and 12 meters high. It took engineers from Guangzhou Salvage Bureau more than a month to make.
The engineers have filled the gaps between the two steel boxes with sand, in order to increase the weight of the steel structure and cope with the effect of gravity under static pressure.
A score of frogmen assisted with underwater operations on Thursday. The sunken ship is expected to be hoisted out of the seawater in July.
According to the salvage plan, the upper part of the steel structure will be brought out of the seawater together with the sunken ship, while the lower part will stay on the seabed forever, said Wu Jiancheng, who is in charge of the salvage operation.
Experts spent three years planning the salvage, considered to be a world first for underwater archaeology.
Archaeologists normally excavate the relics on the sunken boat first and then salvage the boat.
The sunken ship was found accidentally in 1987 by Guangzhou Salvage Bureau and a British underwater salvage company. The first ancient vessel to be discovered on the "Marine Silk Road" in the South China Sea, it was named "Nanhai No.1," meaning South China Sea No.1.
The ship is located some 30 nautical miles west of Hailing Island of Yangjiang City, and lies at a depth of more than 20 meters. About 30 meters long, the vessel is the largest Song Dynasty cargo ship ever discovered.
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Archaeologists estimate that there are probably 60,000 to 80,000 relics on the sunken ship.
It is believed that a successful salvage of the sunken ship will offer important material evidence for restoring the "Silk Road on the Sea," and for the study of China's history in seafaring, ship building, and ceramics making.
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According to Wu, workers have cleared away 25 tons of silt around the sunken ship and have brought out of the seawater 390 cultural relic items. They include green glazed porcelain plates, tin pots and shadowy blue porcelain objects.
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(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2007)
Cliff Carvings May Rewrite History of Chinese Characters
| source: china.org.cn Cliff Carvings May Rewrite History of Chinese Characters |
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Chinese archaeologists say they have found more than 2,000 pictographs dating back 7,000 to 8,000 years, about 3,000 years before other texts, that are believed to be the origin of modern Chinese characters.
The pictographs are on rock carvings in Damaidi, at Beishan Mountain in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which covers about 450 square kilometers with more than 10,000 prehistoric rock carvings.
Paleographers claim that the pictographs may take the history of Chinese characters back to 7,000 to 8,000 years ago.
Previously, scholars believed the earliest Chinese characters included 3,000-year-old inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells, known as the Oracle Bones, and 4,500-year-old pottery-born inscriptions, both found in central Henan Province, one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization.
"We have found some symbols shaped like both pictures and characters," said Li Xiangshi, a cliff-carving expert at the North University of Nationalities based in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia.
"The pictographs are similar to the ancient hieroglyphs of Chinese characters and many can be identified as ancient characters," said Li.
The Damaidi carvings, first discovered in the late 1980s, cover 15 square kilometers with 3,172 cliff carvings, featuring 8,453 individual figures such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing.
"Through arduous research, we have found that some pictographs are commonly seen in up to hundreds of pictures in the carvings," said Liu Jingyun, an expert on ancient Oracle Bone characters.
"The size, shape and meanings of the pictographs in different carvings are the same," Liu said.
Liu believed the meanings of all the pictographs could be deciphered on the basis of certain classifications such as gender.
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(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2007)
