Bizot Interim Guidelines

Bizot Interim Guidelines

As reported at

    <URL:http://www.doernerinstitut.de/en/projekte/Bizot/bizot_1.html>

the Doerner Institut refuses to follow the recently enacted 'Interim
Guidelines' of the Bizot Group. This group of important museums
world-wide has taken on the obligation of organizing major
exhibitions. Under current financial pressure, the group has now
turned its attention to the 'green museum' and the topic of
'sustainability'.

To save resources and to lower the carbon footprint, several members
of the Bizot group proposed the implementation of relaxed 'Interim
Guidelines' for climate conditions in museums as well as for loans.
As argued by the Doerner Institut, a stable room climate with tight
ranges for relative humidity and temperature has been largely
responsible in the past for the excellent condition of sensitive art
objects, including paintings of all types, in our collections. To
depart from these values, would increase the risk for our
collections and do little to help the environment.

Moreover, the relaxed 'Interim Guidelines' increase the risk for all
lenders and will raise insurance premiums, perhaps very
significantly. The institute is convinced that the goals of a "green
museum" and "sustainability" can be achieved by means other than by
abandoning globally accepted museum standards that are also applied
generally to art in transit around the world. As stated by the
institute, the relaxed 'Interim Guidelines' of the Bizot Group are
without doubt mainly geared to the aims of the organizers of large
loan exhibitions.

>From the website mentioned, a recently published statement by
Andreas Burmester and Melanie Eibl can be downloaded in English and
German.

This statement has recently been published in German as

    Andreas Burmester and Melanie Eibl, Klima und Kulturgut.
    "Die Munchner Position zu den Interim Guidelines der Bizot
    Gruppe", in: Restauro 119 (2013) No. 3, p. 53-58

and is supported on p.59 of that journal by a great number of
leading German, Swiss, and Austrian museum conservators.

Andreas Burmester
Director
Doerner Institut
Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen
Barer Strasse 29
D 80799 Munchen


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:49
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 14, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-26-49-002
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