Conflict and Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Culture November 2018

v Conflict and Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Culture November 2018

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi

The Department of Culture and Tourism regulates, develops and promotes the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as an inspired global destination, rich in cultural authenticity, diverse natural offerings and unparalleled family leisure and entertainment attractions, with the aim of supporting Abu Dhabi’s evolution into a world-class, sustainable destination of distinction.

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Culture Sector Strategy

1 Vision and aspiration

A thriving cultural hub that engages and educates residents and tourists by highlighting the UAE’s rich national heritage and bringing the best of global art, museums and music to the region

2 Preserve and protect Abu 3 Strengthen citizens’ national 4 Increase engagement with Dhabi’s cultural heritage pride and cultural awareness Abu Dhabi’s culture scene

▪ Education and outreach ▪ Policies, regulations programme frameworks and mechanisms to ▪ Create a vibrant cultural scene ▪ Research, document and publish preserve cultural heritage and public engagement the intangible culture ▪ Parameters for the identification programmes, and translate an ▪ Cultivate, train and develop and management of cultural interactive dialogue between UAE nationals sites UAE and world cultures ▪ Increase reading levels of ▪ Create the permanent collection nationals and cultivate lifetime of Abu Dhabi museums reading habit 2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Preserving History

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Preserving History

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Investing in Culture

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi and Safe Guarding Cultural Heritage • International Conference for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage in Conflict Areas, December 2016

The Abu Dhabi Declaration: • Led to the creation of an International Fund for the protection of endangered cultural heritage in armed conflict • The creation of an international network of safe havens to temporarily safeguard cultural property endangered by armed conflict or terrorism on their own territory

2017• DepartmentCultural of Culture and Tourism Law Abu Dhabi and Safe Guarding Cultural Heritage ALIPH - International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas The purpose of the Foundation is to attract, leverage, manage and invest resources for the implementation of preventive and emergency protection programmes for cultural property in danger of destruction, damage or looting on account of armed conflict, and to contribute to the rehabilitation of such property.

• Work with UNESCO, on an international level but also

2017 Departmentlocally of Culture and Tourism with training and capacity building Where does the Registrar fit in?

• What we do on a day to day basis is really at the foundation of how to protect cultural heritage. Whether you are working in an area of risk, or borrowing and acquiring for your own collection.

• Knowing what you have - Doing your due diligence

• Huge collaborative effort within your own institution but also in our case across the Emirate and Internationally

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Where does the Registrar fit in?

• DCT Collection consists of the existing and upcoming Museums – Louvre Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum and Al Ain National Museum • But also holds a governmental collection formed out of various cultural institutions and authorities • Lack of documentation, information and provenance = INVENTORY TIME

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum • Founded in the early 70s by the late Sheikh Zayed • Archeological finds from the region, Heritage and Ethnographic materials and Gifts to the UAE • The collection has since grown over time most of which is in storage on site.

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum • Registered dependent on the Gifts… object type… Archaeology… Heritage…

Currency…

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum • Vast amounts of the objects in storage were undocumented

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism

Al Ain Museum

• The collection that had : 495 : been registered had a word : / / : : document for every object :

: : • No collection management + + + :

system in place :

• But we did have a small .

team of hard working

registrars who knew the

collection intimately 30 : :

: : 2002 / 7 : : 2017 Department of Culture and Tourism : Al Ain Museum • Ongoing excavations meant the collection itself was continually growing

• What would happen in an emergency? • The oldest and most significant museum in the UAE – that information would have been lost 2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum

• Conducted a full inventory 2015 • From an estimate 8000 – 9000 objects we came away with a list of 18,000 objects

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum • Inventory transferred to our CMS - EMu • Intensive training on the system and collection management principals

• Next steps: • Team continues to work on the registration of the collection • Curators researching the provenance of the objects, especially the gifts • In September of this year we closed the doors of the Museum while it undergoes extensive renovation • We were able to successfully move the collection with every object accounted for and no damages or losses

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Al Ain Museum

Lessons learned…. • Work in sequence – collection was inventoried before we had our CMS implemented = loss of information and human error • Work with the team on the ground, their knowledge is INVALUBLE as it their paperwork • Ensure you have the support of management and of course the budget • If you are working with external companies give them clear directives and supervise

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Where does the Registrar fit in?

• What you can do to safe guard heritage in times of conflict is two fold: 1. Knowing what you have is knowing how to protect it INVENTORY 2. Do not give illicit trading a market DUE DILIGENCE

• Acquisitions: • Essential to do you due diligence on acquisitions. Especially when working with archaeological finds. • Rock Solid Provenance. E.g. the Assyrian Relief sold at Christies • Work with Interpol, use the Red list, Art Loss Register and do your research • 65% of potential acquisitions are rejected due to issues with the provenance for our Zayed National Museum Collection

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Where does the Registrar fit in?

• Due diligence clashes with rapid collection development • In line with our collection management and development policies we have a very rigorous due diligence procedure around acquisitions • But how do we align that with a intense acquisition programme

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Moving Forward

Get your own house in order first…. We as a Governmental Culture Sector and as a regulatory body need to have strong policies and procedures in place

• Long way to go: we still have a lot of retrospective due diligence to complete • Backlash when acquisitions are jeopardized in order to fulfill due diligence requirements • High costs

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism Closing remarks:

"He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn." Sheikh Zayed Late ruler and Founder of the UAE

Thank you

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism v

2017 Department of Culture and Tourism