http://museum-security.org/
securma@xs4all.nl

August 21, 1998

- Re: Practices of security in museums
- Re: (Fwd) CCTV surveillance via Internet (Bob Cole)
- Re: Re: (Fwd) CCTV surveillance via Internet (Steve Keller)
- Cultural Property Publications (Roger Wulff)
- ??damages by museum patrons/copyists??? (Holly Chase)
- Re: ??damages by museum patrons/copyists??? (Anne Douglas)
- collections: electronic access policies (Sally Shelton)
- Trust seeks sex ban on chalk giant (Daily Telegraph London)

Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 11:41:43 +0100
To: securma@xs4all.nl
From: Bob Cole Bob@bcole.demon.co.uk
Subject:

Re: Practices of security in museums

Alistair,
For help and advice in UK contact the Museums And Galleries Security Advisor, Alf Longhurst, at the MGC, 16 Queen Annes Gate, LONDON, SWIH 9AA, 0171 233 4200. I am a member of the MGC executive commitee and we have in print (at the printers) now the first manual in UK for advice on Museum Security THE MGC SECURITY MANUAL, feel free to get back to me. In addition get this months 'Museum Practice' Magazine for detailed advice on security, contact the Editor, David Martin 0171 608 2933 Bob Cole, Head of Security, Harewood House Trust, W Yorks, UK.
In message 199808190735.JAA07425@xs2.xs4all.nl, securma@xs4all.nl writes
Practices of security in museums (Alistair McGill alistair.mcgill@arup.com) Our security section mainly deals with threat & risk analysis, and security in the financial sector. However, one of our current buildings incorporates a museum. What we would like to know is what the current practices are for security within museums, and what relevant documents there are that we should try to obtain copies of.
Alistair McGill

Date sent: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 14:18:50 +0100
To: securma@xs4all.nl
From: Bob Cole Bob@bcole.demon.co.uk
Subject:

Re: (Fwd) CCTV surveillance via Internet

Bob Cole, Head of Security, Harewood House Trust, LEEDS, LS17 9LS, West Yorkshire, UK also member of National Executive Commitee, Museums & Galleries Commission Security Group.
Steve,
Very interesting, I have recently evaluated a programme and system that can dial in to an exsisiting CCTV system and view any camera through a PC - very handy, also building management system that can interface with exsisting alarms, monitoring, heating, environmental etc. Combining the 2 could be very useful.
Any information on asset protection, eg intelligent tags and pagers? Appreciate any up dates.
Bob Cole

From: IntlArtCop@aol.com
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 01:39:50 EDT
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject:

Re: Re: (Fwd) CCTV surveillance via Internet

Bob:
No information on EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) systems or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems but will keep you posted of any new technology appropriate for our institutions. I'll post any updates on the internet CCTV monitoring when it is finalized and I am authorized to do so.
Steve Keller

From: Roger Wulff museplan@erols.com
Subject:

Cultural Property Publications

Dear List Readers:
In regards to Museum Security and Cultural Property Protection Publications, I would like to remind everyone that "Museum Security and Protection" by ICOM and a number of other publications are available through our "On-Line" Museum Bookstore located at the address below.
Just go to the bottom of our Bookstore Page, click on the Barnes & Noble Search Page Logo, and type "Cultural Property Protection" in the Search Catagory. A listing of 25 - 30 books will be listed and you can purchase them through the Secure Server.
Kind Regards
Roger Wulff
http://www.washingtonpost.com/yp/museumshopint

(Museum-L)
From: Holly Chase HCHASE@BYUGATE.BYU.EDU
Subject:

??damages by museum patrons/copyists???

Can anyone tell me if they have heard or known of "accidents" that have occurred when a patron set up an easel and copied in oil paint an exhibited painting in the museum's gallery? I am currently working on a policy for our museum that allows carefully selected artists or art students to set up easels and copy exhibited paintings (excluding borrowed works) in a liquid medium (oil, acrylic, or watercolor). What would help me out is any information regarding institutions' experiences with artists painting in museum's galleries, especially if they know of any accidents that have actually occured, such as paint splattering or solvent containers dropped, ect. If an accident occured that damaged the artworks or even furniture in the galleries how was this handled? Was the copyist fined the cost of conservation or cleaning? Was a copy permit revoked? What kind of rules/policies has your museum established to help minimize the great risks involved? Please, if you have any information, respond to me on or off the list,and any type of stories or experiences would be a great help.
Holly Chase
Assistant Registrar
Museum of Art, Brigham Young University
North Campus Drive
Provo, Utah 84602-1400
HCHASE@BYUGATE.BYU.EDU

From: Anne Douglas adouglas@EMAIL.UNC.EDU
Subject:

Re: ??damages by museum patrons/copyists???

About 12 years ago, when I was a youngster in the Registrar's Office in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a woman making a copy of a (Monet?) painting in one of the Impressionist galleries got some of her own paint on the original painting. This caused a bit of an uproar and her copying permit was permanently revoked, much to her consternation. Her plaintive argument was, "Surely these things happen!" I'm afraid I do not remember other details very clearly. Copyists were supposed to work a certain distance from the originals -- perhaps it was up to the security officers to enforce this. I don't even know if the MMA Registrar's Office still issues the copying permits and easels -- I would think not, but who knows. If you need more info about this incident, contact me off list and I'll give you the name and number of some people still at the MMA who are likely to remember.
Anne Douglas. Anne Fuhrman Douglas. Registrar
Ackland Art Museum The University of North Carolina Campus Box 3400
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3400 U.S.A.

From: "Sally Shelton" Shelton.Sally@nmnh.si.edu
Subject:

collections: electronic access policies

Apologies for cross-posting.
I sent the following message to MUSEUM-L and have had no response (other than Wow! Cool question! Please share your findings). Must be the end of summer. Anyway, now it's your turn.
We're trying to get a sense of how museums in the public trust arrive at policies that permit public access to some or all of the collections information accessible electronically. If you have a policy on public access to collections information that you 'd like to share, or if you have behind-the-scenes information on the development of such policies, please feel free to respond to me off-line. Copies of policies would also be useful (or directions to sites where policies have been posted for reference) . I have a pretty good sense of some of the levels of information that are commonly restricted (donor ID, collecting locality below the county level, physical location of specimen in collection, etc.), but would like to know if anyone has had to deal with informal or formal (legal) challenges to such restrictions (based on FOIA or the like). If so, how did that turn out? I am also turning up new issues (e.g. forensic materials or other specimens reposited with the institution as evidence in criminal proce ed What about determining sensitive levels of information in natural history collections? Have you had difficulty determining what can and cannot be restricted? What do you consider the most important information that should be restricted from casual public access? Have you had experience with an institutional policy that permitted freer public access to collections data than the collections staff thought appropriate? (or, conversely, that restricted public access more than collections staff thought necessary?) If so, how was this difference resolved? If you host collections-based information for other groups (professional societies, etc.), have you come across problems when their access policies differed significantly from yours? If so, how was that resolved? Please not that this is not a question about physical public access to collections (that comes later)....just about electronic access to collections information based in a public trust institution. Any and all suggestions for good resources will be grate fully received. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Cheers,
Sally Shelton
Collections Program, Room 414B
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560-0107
phone (202) 786-2601
email shelton.sally@nmnh.si.edu

Trust seeks sex ban on chalk giant (Daily Telegraph London)

By Sean O'Neill

THE National Trust has appealed to couples not to make love on the Cerne Abbas Giant because it fears that the monument will be damaged. The trust said yesterday that there was no evidence, despite the claims of mythology, that the huge chalk giant was a potent fertility symbol. It fears that childless couples might be encouraged to attempt to conceive on the giant after Sandy Thorne, 34, of Puddletown, Dorset, claimed that she became pregnant by her 30-year-old husband Andy, after a nocturnal "love-in" ceremony at the site. "Obviously we are pleased for this couple but this does have implications," said Libby Mead, the spokesman for the trust's Wessex region. "We would not want to encourage other people." She said that Cerne Abbas was "a sensitive archaeological site" and was fenced off for that reason. "We do not want people trampling all over it."

Main Indexpage