Digital for safety and with an unlimited number of participants: the German Museums Association’s conference on “Museum Security” had to be canceled this spring due to coronavirus. It will now be held on September 23, 2020 Like so many other events, the German Museums Association’s conference on “Museum Security” in March had to be canceled due to the coronavirus. This has not affected the topicality of the topic […]
Digital for safety and with an unlimited number of participants: Due to the coronavirus, the German Museums Association’s conference on “Museum Security” also had to be canceled this spring. It will now be held on September 23, 2020
Like so many other events, the German Museums Association’s conference on “Museum Security” in March had to be canceled due to the coronavirus. This has not changed the topicality of the subject. The conference will therefore be held again on September 23. This time, even if the pandemic continues, it should not be canceled because it will take place completely digitally. This at least has the advantage that anyone who is interested can now take part, whereas places were limited in March and quickly fully booked.
The conference program provides for the question of “how museums can protect their objects while remaining accessible to the public in the usual way” to be discussed at the beginning. Marion Ackermann, Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections, and Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, will talk about this with Eckart Köhne, President of the German Museums Association. Ackermann and Parzinger are two people directly affected by security breaches, as there have been major thefts in Dresden and Berlin in recent times: A gold coin weighing one hundred kilos was stolen from the Bodemuseum in Berlin in 2017, and numerous sets of jewels were stolen from the Historic Green Vault in Dresden at the beginning of the year.
The talk will be followed by a review of “Museum burglaries through the ages”. The Museumsbund was able to secure Carsten Pfohl from the Berlin State Office of Criminal Investigation as a speaker. Pfohl is head of the “Qualified Property Crime” department. Stefan Simon, Director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory, will speak about risk management in various museums.
Security has always been an issue in museums. But how secure is your own museum? Every museum employee can check this question for themselves using a security guide. The questionnaires in the guide were created by a team of three museum specialists for the Conference of National Cultural Institutions. Project manager Alke Dohrmann presents the guidelines. The final presentation will be given by Björn Kupfer from the German Insurance Association.
Q&A sessions with security experts from the “Facility Management and Security” working group at the German Museums Association are also planned. There will be digital options for sending questions to the experts.
Register at www.museumsbund.de.
