We interviewed 13 members of staff, from four museums in each country (eight museums in total) about their experiences of security in the broadest sense. Our research was an exploratory study of security-related issues within museums of two northern European countries: England and Finland. The security challenges for museums are therefore complex – and not only do they need to preserve and protect cultural material in their collections, but also make it accessible and available to a range of audiences, each with differing needs. Theft is not the only issue museums face in terms of security: vandalism protest fire flooding and terrorism threats are all significant issues in the museum context. Stories of museum heists like this doubtless capture the public imagination, but are devastating to the places and people affected by them. Twenty seven years later the location of the paintings remains unknown despite thousands of hours of investigation and the recently increased offer of a $10 million reward. In 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers stole thirteen works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, worth an estimated $500 million.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |