International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property 8QLWHG1DWLRQV (GXFDWLRQDO6FLHQWL¿FDQG &XOWXUDO2UJDQL]DWLRQ Endangered Heritage Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property 8QLWHG1DWLRQV (GXFDWLRQDO6FLHQWL¿FDQG &XOWXUDO2UJDQL]DWLRQ Endangered Heritage Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France, & by the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Via di San Michele 13, 00153 Rome, Italy. Preface by UNESCO © UNESCO and ICCROM, 2016 In 1945, after the devastation and destruction of World War II, UNESCO was UNESCO ISBN 978-92-3-100162-8 ICCROM ISBN 978-92-9077-247-7 created on the conviction that lasting peace can only be built in the minds of women and men, on the basis of dignity, equality and mutual respect. Museums are ideally placed to share this vision. No longer mere temples of erudite scholarship and keepers of artefacts, they play a This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC- vital role in education, social cohesion and sustainable development BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the by stimulating intellectual exchange and creativity and as symbols of UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-useccbysa- identity. The international community has acknowledged that museums en) as well as by the terms of the future ICCROM Open Access Repository. continue to fulfil a wide variety of useful functions for society at large. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication The great potential of museums in fulfilling our common mission has been do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning all the more apparent in recent years as witnessed by the adoption by all the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Member States of UNESCO, in November 2015, of the Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and of ICCROM and do not commit the Organizations. their Diversity and their Role in Society, 55 years after the adoption of the previous global recommendation on the subject in 1960. Over the past decades, museums and heritage institutions have Co-Creation: increasingly become the target of violent extremists. When museums are threatened for their role in protecting and valorizing precious witnesses of the past and human creativity, it is their intrinsic value Concept and text in English Aparna Tandon, ICCROM for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding that we must Images Abdel Hamid Salah, EHRF – Egyptian protect and support. Museums and their staff have gone through Heritage Rescue Foundation challenging times also due to natural disasters and climate change. Together with ICCROM, our long-term partner, UNESCO stands Information design and Visuality - www.visuality.be visualisation united with the international heritage community to increase museums’ capacity in responding to diverse emergency situations. Printing ICCROM-ATHAR We also wish to highlight that how to ensure women’s participation in decision-making and actions related to heritage is a key challenge for Research Eugénie Crété UNESCO, Member States and the international heritage community. It is & Alessia Strozzi, for ICCROM a necessity for achieving sustainable development. Equally in emergency Amira Sadik, HebatAllah AbdelHamid, situations, ensuring women’s involvement whenever possible through Dalia Hassan & Sara Nor, EHRF a multi-stakeholder and contextual approach is desirable for yielding Coordination Catherine Antomarchi, Aparna Tandon beneficial results for gender-responsive action in national policy-making. & Isabelle Verger, ICCROM It is our sincere hope that these guidelines will serve the best interests Nao Hayashi, UNESCO of all stakeholders concerned. Preface by UNESCO - 5 Why this handbook? When to evacuate? Protecting cultural heritage during an armed conflict is challenging, and, The decision to evacuate a threatened collection of objects from a mu- at times, proves to be life threatening. Yet communities trapped in war seum or an archaeological site is an important one. If not thought out zones valiantly try to save their cultural heritage, as it provides a sense carefully, a hastily executed move can expose valuable cultural objects to of continuity amid turmoil and uncertainty. A striking example of a com- newer and unforeseen threats. That is why this decision should be taken munity-led rescue of cultural heritage is the successful evacuation of the only if all the following conditions are met: privately held manuscript collections from Timbuktu during the conflict that broke out in northern Mali in 2013. • the threat to your institution is real; • the current measures in place would not be able to prevent damage This handbook is the result of insights gained from similar on-the-ground to your collection; experiences collected through ICCROM’s capacity building initiative on • safer place for storage of the collection is available; First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis. It provides step-by-step • formal authorization to evacuate and relocate objects has been guidance for evacuating cultural collections under extreme conditions. It secured; is meant to assist those communities and institutions, which are trying • you have sufficient man-power and resources to relocate the endan- to prevent the destruction and looting of cultural objects during a crisis gered collection; situation. It can be used to train others and to improve emergency pre- • there is no threat to the personal safety and security of the people paredness at cultural sites. involved in the operation. Considering that no two emergency situations are alike, the handbook describes a simple work flow that can be customized to meet the needs of a specific emergency context. The publishers thank the Egyptian Her- How to evacuate? itage Rescue Foundation (EHRF), a Cairo based non-governmental or- ganisation for field-testing this work flow. EHRF is a team of 97 women In the next chapters we will describe the workflow of an evacuation. and men trained to provide first aid to cultural heritage in crisis situa- Assess tions. In 2014, the team was called upon to salvage the collection of 1 the Museum of Islamic Art of Cairo which was damaged due to a bomb 2 Prepare attack at a nearby police station. 3 Document, pack and move Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided in 4 Relocate and store this publication is relevant. Nonetheless, the publishers would like to present it as a work in progress and invite the feedback of the users. 6 When to evacuate? - 7 you are here The Workflow ASSESS PREPARE DOCUMENT, PACK AND MOVE RELOCATE ASSESS AND STORE DOCUMENT, PACK AND MOVE RELOCATE PREPARE AND STORE 8 The Workflow - 9 Assess ❶ ❶ ASSESS THE THREAT ❷ BLOCK THE THREAT ❸ PRIORITISE OBJECTS ❷ ❸ Assess - 11 ❶ ASSESS THE THREAT ❸ PRIORITISE OBJECTS Assess if the threat is real. Prepare a list of objects that have to be evacuated first. To begin with, analyse the likelihood of a particular threat e.g. a flood or a riot affecting your institution. Often the location of an institu- Prepare a list of priority items. tion makes it more vulnerable to a specific threat. For example, a violent Consult with the officer-in-charge or the custodian, and check riot in the vicinity of a museum poses a threat to its safety. In such a the previous documentation to identify the most valuable ob- scenario, the concerned staff should treat the threat of vandalism and/or jects that have to be evacuated first. For easy identification, looting as real and take proper counter measures. mark such objects by placing small pieces of paper next to them. Similarly an archaeological site would be considered unsafe if it is located In case the information about the significance of the individual near a water body that is overflowing. objects is not available, prepare the list of priority items by iden- tifying objects that are more exposed to a specific threat. ❷ BLOCK THE THREAT A simple way of doing so is to trace the likely routes through Block the threat or prevent it from which a threat could enter your institution, and then list those entering. objects that would fall within the easy reach of the threat from Once you have ascertained that the threat is real, try to these routes. As explained above, use small pieces of paper to ensure that there are counter measures in place that would effectively identify these objects and their respective locations. block a certain threat from entering your site. These measures have to Example: If armed looters can enter a museum through its front be threat specific. entrance, then the objects housed in the surrounding area could This is best demonstrated through an example. Consider a scenario be easily damaged or looted. where a museum has to be protected from armed looters. Threat specif- ic counter measures in this case may include: • Deployment of additional security personnel to guard the museum building; • Putting up of concrete barriers around the museum building and/or boarding up of the doors and windows to block forceful entry. If for some reason, the museum under threat is unable to adopt such measures, in that case, the concerned authorities should prepare to evacuate both the staff and the collections.