The protection of artefacts

The situation of museum storage space following the structural changes

MúzeumCafé 37.

Ten years ago the newly established National Artefact Protection Action Committee surveyed national organisations and others then still part of the county museum structure about their storage facilities and preservation activities. The results were frightening, partly because, as had been suspected, if the housing of collections did not improve urgently, much of Hungary’s stock of 30 million artefacts would face decay. A programme was launched, which allocated 500 million forints for the development of museum depositories and protection tasks. Thanks to tenders, conferences and publications, a change of attitude began, and today expertise in preventive protection is widespread. The Museum Artefact Protection Committee, which provided guidance for the project, continues its work. According to a 2011 survey, there have been slow, tangible results. 2013 has witnessed a turning point vis-à-vis the committee and Hungarian, mainly provincial artefact protection. The committee’s base has moved from the Museum of Ethnography to the National Museum and, with the termination of the county museum structure and the disintegration of the system of technical supervision, an important role will be played by provincial institutes’ artefact protection. A ministry decree regulates how museums have to use the support given for various tasks. The nation-wide network isn’t restricted to the town museums with county level status, it goes all the way up to Hungarian National Museum. The system still has many loose ends. As Annamária Vígh, head of the Ministry of Human Resources’ Public Collection Department, has put it: the current regulation is not written in stone; observations and proposals are needed, so that in the future Hungary’s protection of artefacts can further develop.