Museum Emergency Preparedness Report

1350 Words3 Pages

In 2015, ISIS destroyed priceless objects from the Mosul Museum that are thousands of years old. The destruction of monuments and artifacts that date from the Assyrian and Akkadian empires, drew anger from the global community and condemnation by activists and minorities that have been attacked by ISIS. In fact, ISIS fighters used explosives to destroy 3,000-year-old statues in Mosul museum. Other ISIS militants smashed the statues in the Mosul museum by using heavy hammers and pushed them to the ground, and then broke the statues into small fragments. Also, the video that was released showed some men dressed in black at one of historical site that is located near Mosul city, destroying a winged bull, an Assyrian protective deity that dates …show more content…

With advance thought and preparation, museum staff can prevent or mitigate extreme damage to collections. A museum emergency preparedness plan concentrates on preparing for and mitigating the damage from dangerous events that put people and collections at risk. In addition to the items in its collections, as a public space, a museum is in charge of for the safety for attendances and staff (Buck &Gilmore, 2010). Recent research by Heritage Preservation revealed the appalling state of emergency-preparedness planning in the United States. Only 20 percent of museums have an emergency- preparedness plan that covers collections and staff trained to implement it. However, such plans are important to museums fulfilling their roles as goods stewards of the cultural, artistic, historic and scientific resources they hold in trust for the public (Merritt, 2008). • When to evacuate? According to the handbook of the Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections of the UNESCO, the quick resolution to evacuate a threatened collection on of objects from a museum is significant one. If not thought out cautiously, a hastily executed move can expose worthy cultural objects to newer and unexpected threats. That is why this resolution should be taken only if all the following conditions are met: • The threat to a museum is actually

Open Document