What is the ethical criteria for a private collection to receive museum status?
MúzeumCafé 27.
Henrietta Galambos, museum lawyer, member of the presidium of ICOM Hungary – National Committee: ICOM’s Code of Ethics specifies only the minimal professional standards with respect to museums. The preamble notes that while some countries lay down the minimal legal requirements, elsewhere the same guidance is achieved through ‘accreditation’, ‘registration’ or other assessments and quality assurance methods.
Annamária Vígh, head in Ministry of National Resources: Considering that anyone can establish a museum, there is no particular stipulation in relation to the type of procedure to be followed in the case of a private collection. When the aforementioned law was passed it established the professional precepts for the conditions regarding different levels of institutional arrangement, irrespective of whether a public collection is in reality based on private collecting or not.
Péter Buzinkay, Supervisor of the NOCH: The legal conditions are defined by the law on museums. Ethical norms also exist and they should be known. In line with the many years’ experience of our Supervisory Authority, but also as an art historian who visits museums, I think that the regulation of Hungary’s museums and the management of its official affairs are lagging behind the country’s political changes.
József Sárkány, art historian, head of Fine and Applied Arts Department, JPM: The relevant law also stipulates a somewhat less 48. § (1) states that a public interest museum collection is a uniformly managed and held compilation of defined values of cultural goods recorded and documented in a regulated way and established according to uniform collection principles which does not comply with museum requirements but which the minister qualifies as a public interest museum collection on the basis of its scientific or artistic value.