This volume provides an unparalleled exploration of ethics and museum practice, considering the controversies and debates which surround key issues such as provenance, ownership, cultural identity, environmental sustainability and social engagement. Using a variety of case studies which reflect the internal realities and daily activities of museums as they address these issues, from exhibition content and museum research to education, accountability and new technologies, Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage enables a greater understanding of the role of museums as complex and multifaceted institutions of cultural production, identity-formation and heritage preservation.
Benefitting from ICOM’s unique position in the museum world, this collection brings a global range of academics and professionals together to examine museums ethics from multiple perspectives. Providing a more complete picture of the diverse activities now carried out by museums, Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage will appeal to practitioners, academics and students alike.
Introductions:
i ICOM Turns 70: Ethics and the Value Creation Role of Museums
Hans-Martin Hinz
ii The role of museums in the twenty-first century
Anne Catherine Robert-Hauglustaine
iii The Work of the ICOM Ethics Committee
Martin Schärer
iv Introduction
Bernice L Murphy
PART I: Museums and ethics, the ICOM Code, and evolving standards for museums’ heritage care and social commitment
1 ICOM’s present Code: ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums (2004)
Geoffrey Lewis
2 Ethical Issues and Standards for Natural History Museums
Eric Dorfman
3 Reversing the De-realisation of Natural and Social Phenomena: Ethical Issues for Museums in a Multidisciplinary Context
Michel Van-Praët
PART II: International Action on Protection of the World’s Cultural Heritage and Biosphere
4 UNESCO’s Actions and International Standards for Museums
Mechtild Rossler, and Nao Hayashi
5 The UNESCO Recommendation on the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and Role in Society
François Mairesse
6 Protecting Cultural Heritage at Risk: an International Public Service Mission for ICOM
France Desmarais
7 Dances with Intellectual Property: Museums, Monetization and Digitization
Rina Pantalony
8 Stolen and Illegally Exported Artifacts in Collections: Key Issues for Museums within a Legal Framework
Marilyn Phelan
9 Advice and Support in the Recovery of Lost Art : The Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste Michael Franz
PART III: Heritage Care and Ethics Through the Lens of Multiple Cultures and Regions
10 Unchanging Ethics in a Changing World
Gary Edson
11 New Models of Shared Heritage and Collection Access: Museum Island and Humboldt Forum in Berlin
Herman Parzinger
12 A Museum Triangle: Ethics, Standards of Care, and the Pleasure of Perception
Dorota Folga- Januszewska
13 The Odyssey of Nature and Science Museums from Apollo to the Anthropocene
Emlyn Koster
14 The Chinese Museum: Transformation and Change through Ethics Construction
An Laishun
15 Ethics, Museology and Professional Training in Japan
Eiji Mizushima
PART IV: Provenance research, evolving issues and new directions across a changing landscape for collections
16 Advocating for International Collaborations: WWII-era Provenance Research in Museums Jane Milosch
17 ‘Definitely Stolen?’: Why There Is No Alternative to Provenance Research in Archaeological Museums
Markus Hilgert
18 Deaccessioning: some reflections
François Mairesse
19 Ethics in a Changing Social Landscape: Community Engagement and Public Participation in Museums.
Sally Yerkovitch
20 Conservation – How Ethics Work in Practice
Stephanie de Roemer
PART V: ‘Torn History’, Reshaping an Integrated Heritage, and Repatriation Issues
21 Using the Past to Forge a Future: Challenges of Uniting a Nation against Skeletal Odds Bongani Ndhlovu
22 Exhibiting Contentious and Difficult Histories: Ethics, Emotions and Reflexivity
Sharon Macdonald
23 Native America in the Twenty-First Century: Journeys in Cultural Governance and Museum Interpretation
W. Richard West, Jr.
24 Afro-descendent Heritage and its Unacknowledged Legacy in Latin American Museum Representation
Monica Gorgas
25 In Search of the Inclusive Museum
Amareswar Galla
PART VI: Case-Studies, Ethical Dilemmas and Ethics-in-Action
26 The Lombroso Museum in Turin: A Reflection on the Exhibition and Scientific Study of Human Remains
Alberto Garlandini & Stefano Montaldo
27 The Auschwitz-Birkenow Museum and a Claim to Portraits of Holocaust Victims Made by Artist Dinah Gottliebová Babitt
Vojtěch Blodig
28 The Mask of Ka-nefer-nefer
Regine Schulz
29 Ethics versus Law: The restitution of The Miracle of St Anthony by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Aedín MacDevitt
30 Ethics in Action: Situational Scenarios Turning the Keys to the Code of Ethics
Eva Maehre Lauritzen
Biography
Bernice L. Murphy is the former National Director, Museums Australia (Canberra), and Chair of the ICOM Ethics Committee from 2005-2011. She is also former Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1984–2008). She served nine years (six as Vice-President) on the International Council of Museums Executive Council (1995–2004). She has published since the 1970s on exhibitions, art museums and contemporary art (including Indigenous art) and is the current editor of Museums Australia magazine.
