ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF MUSEUMS NO. 1 / 2017 NATIONAL INSTITUTe for cultural research and training 1 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin posuere efficitur tortor quis venenatis. Nam non dui elit. Donec congue ipsum et scelerisque volutpat. Pellentesque interdum malesuada neque non elementum. Morbi in nunc et massa ullamcorper commodo rutrum at neque. Fusce placerat aliquet malesuada. Phasellus non NATIONAL INSTITUTe for cultural research and training Editorial team - Virgil Ștefan Nițulescu, PhD – Editor-in-Chief - Raluca Iulia Capotă – peer-reviewer - Mircea Victor Angelescu – peer-reviewer Editor: Bogdan Pălici Text processing: Aurora Pădureanu Correction: Radu Vasile Translation: Mina Fanea Iovanovici Corresponding address: No. 22, Unirii Blvd., 2nd Floor, Sector 3, Postal Code 030833, Bucharest Tel: 021 891 91 03 | Fax: 021 893 31 75 | http://www.culturadata.ro/categorie-publicatii/revista-muzeelor/ www.facebook.com/RevistaMuzeelor © National Institute for Cultural Research and Training ISSN 1220-1723 ISSN-L 1220-1723 Cover: The Resolution of the National Assembly from Alba Iulia, November 18th-December 1st, 1918 Source: The Archives of the National Museum of Romanian History) 2 NNo.O. 1/2017 ROMANIANTHE BUCHAREST JOURNAL MUNICIPALITY OF MUSEUM MUSEUMS D I G I T I Z A T I O N 3 S 5 Virgil Ștefan Nițulescu – Editorial CENTENNIAL OF THE GREAT UNION 8 Alina Petrescu – Who will write our history? Romanian artists in the Great War 15 Florian Dumitrache – Ethnic Multiculturalism in Țara Bârsei (Land of Barsa). The Csángós of Lutheran Confession LE OF CONTENT OF LE 29 Ana Pascu – The Communities of Jiu River Valley: Strategies, Narratives and Identity Museums B 49 Cristina Claudia Popescu – National architectural identities at the museum of the “Ion Mincu” school of architecture and urban planning TA in bucharest 54 Marcel Otoiu, Mircea Dorobanțu – “Centennial trains” cultural project 64 Sorin-Mihai Constantinescu – A path of responsibility for heritage 71 Raluca Bem Neamu, Alexandra Zbuchea – I Wonder Why I (don’t) Love My Country an Acknowledged Project EUROPEAN YEAR OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 84 Ioan Denuț, Alexandra Sîngeorzan – Natural heritage versus cultural heritage 91 Dana Nicolae – The phenomenon of guided walking tours for locals in Bucharest - revealing the need to disseminate local narratives PROFESSIONAL ETHICAL CODES AND MUSEUM ETHICS 95 Alis Vasile – The statute of specialists in museums – between formation and regulation 99 Sorin-Mihai Constantinescu – Particularities of open museum ethics 106 Ana-Maria-Violeta Voloc – ICOM Code of Ethics and its applicability to museums 111 Valer Rus – Some ethical issues of Romanian museum management 116 Ioana Lidia Ilea – The Deaccessioning of Museum Cultural Assets. An Ethical Challenge for the Museum World 4 EDITORIAL Virgil Ștefan Nițulescu, PhD Editor-in-Chief ABSTRACT Though the ICOM Code of Ethics is very much invoked in Romania, it is, in fact, less known, proving the fact that there is still a lot to do, in the Romanian museums, in order to implement the principles of ICOM and to convince the Romanian authorities to comprehend the role of museums and of heritage in the contemporary Romanian society. One good occasion would be the time of 2018, when the European Union celebrates the European Year of Cultural Heritage and Romania celebrates one century from the Great Union (when all the Romanian provinces united, in 1918, in one national state). Key-words: Romanian museums, ICOM Code of Ethics. 5 The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has trafficking in cultural goods, clandestine archaeological been established as the main international non- excavations, cultural goods destruction, emergency governmental organization ever since its creation in actions in case of natural disaster, and continuing 1946, as a successor of the International Museums with the requests for return of objects to their Office (1926-1945). Initially, the link between original communities, the requests for return of setting standards for museums on a universal basis stolen or seized goods to their rightful owners, and drawing up a deontological code of museum mediation of disputes on museum goods and the specialists did not seem very direct. However, immoral behaviour of some professionals in the following the adoption of the Convention on field. In the last few years, others have been added measures to be taken to ban and prevent illicit to these problems, including the deaccession (the import, export and transfer of property, adopted term is not yet acquired into Romanian, and we use by UNESCO on November 14, 1970 (which Romania this barbarism, from English) of cultural assets (in joined only in 1990), ICOM considered it necessary other words, the museum’s renunciation to some to adopt a number of resolutions in support of collected assets), the closure of some museums and those who were to implement the provisions of the financial pressures exerted on them. the Convention and who worked in museums. Undoubtedly, the museums had no way of remaining In a recently published volume, the well-known indifferent to cultural goods trafficking, they could American museologist Gary Edson even considered not lend credit, through their respectability, to those that among all the standards promoted by ICOM over dealing with this trafficking, because museums are the seven decades of existence, the Code of Ethics is the most well-known and influential in the museum not simple players in the culture market, but some world1. responsible organizations for educating citizens. In fact, in the same year, ICOM specified, in a document Unfortunately, Romania still lacks a version approved that became programmatic for the whole activity of by the Romanian National Committee ICOM of the the organization, that “market laws cannot become Code of Ethics. However, the document is quite the laws governing museums.” This was the nucleus well known (albeit too superficial and often only from which, in the years to come, a stream of thought declarative, in my opinion) in Romanian museums. was born in ICOM for the adoption of an ethical code Like any code, it also includes a set of rules to be of the profession, which only happened in November observed, mutually and willingly, by all members of 1986 at the Buenos Aires General Conference. The the museum community. The idea of respecting a immediate effect of adopting the first Code of moral code is specific to liberal professions. In case of Ethics for Museums was the establishment of a violation of the provisions of such a code, the culprit Committee on Deontology (the current ETHCOM). should be punished in some way, up to the loss of This Committee constituted the laboratory where the right to practice the profession. While in the case the Council perfected the principles and definitions of physicians or psychologists, for example, there of the Code, up to its current form, adopted at the are colleagues in Romania who can sanction the Seoul General Conference in October 2004. deeds of a member of the profession who violated 1 Gary Edson, Unchanging Ethics in a Changing World, in Museums, Issues debated by ETHCOM cover a fairly wide range Ethics and Cultural Heritage, Edited by Bernice L. Murphy, London of museum-specific activities, ranging from illicit and New York: Routledge, 2016, p. 134. 6 the code of ethics, there is no such correspondent at the universal level. In addition, we should note that for museum staff. Thus, the only arbiter is the one specialized codes have already begun to appear, the outside the profession: the law. The great variety of first of which is for natural history museums, ratified specific functions in museums (from curators and in August 2013 by the Committee for Museums scholars to curators and drawers), as well as the and Natural History Collections (NATHIST). At the known lack of own organization, make it hard to imagine the establishment of a college of museums, same time, the International Council for Museums let’s say, in Romania. In the absence of such a body, and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), an ICOM the request of compliance with the Code of Ethics affiliated organization, decided in November 2009 remains only a desideratum. Certainly, some of on the principles to be followed in the event of these provisions can become rules by including deaccession (with express application only to this them in normative acts, but in this case the noble type of museum, obviously). feeling of belonging to a particular profession and to a certain body of professionals is lost. As two Confronted with enough internal conflicts, with the American authors have said, “a professional is more daily struggle to obtain the necessary resources for than a person with skills and knowledge. To become the operation, with the claims of the credit officers, a professional, you need to devote your skills and with the obvious “detachment” displayed by the knowledge to promoting human dignity.2” In other resort Ministry regarding the fundamental problems words, a museum professional cannot be a simple employee who performs mechanical tasks. Working of the museums (of all museums) in Romania, the in a museum implies the existence of an inner community of specialists hopes that in 2018, when purpose to work for the benefit of the community, the European Union celebrates the European Year beyond statements and annual assessments made of Cultural Heritage, and Romania celebrates the by hierarchical superiors. 100th anniversary of the Great Union, there will be a greater interest on behalf of the society as a whole, Several recent cases recorded in Romanian museums, which brought to public knowledge the existence of for heritage and, therefore, for museums. If so, this fierce and painful conflicts in some of the museums will also depend on the attitude of those working in of the country, let us see a general picture, somewhat museums and who should be aware of the facts we bleaker than we suspected.