International Council of Museums

International Council of Museums (ICOM)

Formation	1946 (1946)
Type	Non-governmental organization
Purpose	Conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage
Location	Paris, France
Coordinates	48°50′44″N 2°18′23″E / 48.8455°N 2.3063°E / 48.8455; 2.3063Coordinates: 48°50′44″N 2°18′23″E / 48.8455°N 2.3063°E / 48.8455; 2.3063
Endowment	Fonds de dotation de l’ICOM[1]
Website	icom.museum

Created in 1946, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organisation maintaining formal relations with UNESCO^[2][3] and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. ICOM also partners with entities such as the World Intellectual Property Organization,^[4] INTERPOL,^[5] and the World Customs Organization in order to carry out its international public service missions, which include fighting illicit traffic in cultural goods and promoting risk management and emergency preparedness to protect world cultural heritage in the event of natural or man-made disasters.

Code of ethics for museums

ICOM adopted its ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums^[6] in 1986, a reference tool that sets standards of excellence to which all members of the organisation must adhere. The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, translated into 39 languages and revised in 2006, establishes values and principles shared by ICOM and the international museum community. These standards of self-regulation by museums include basic principles for museum governance, the acquisition and disposal of collections, and rules for professional conduct.

Fighting illicit traffic

Illicit traffic in cultural goods causes significant damage to heritage, particularly in regions of the world where cultural objects are most susceptible to theft and looting. Supporting the fight against illicit traffic in cultural goods is among ICOM’s highest priorities. In this context, ICOM publishes its Red List series^[7] to raise awareness on smuggling and illicit trade in cultural objects. The ICOM Red Lists are tools designed to help police and customs officials, heritage professionals, and art and antiquities dealers to identify the types of objects that are most susceptible to illicit trafficking.

ICOM has already published Red Lists for many different countries and regions:

Museums emergency programme

ICOM is committed to providing cultural institutions with the necessary support and risk prevention tools when faced with conflict situations or natural disasters. Through its Disaster Relief for Museums Task Force (DRTF), its Museums Emergency Programme (MEP) and its active role in the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS),^[8] ICOM assists museums worldwide by mobilising its resources quickly and efficiently to provide support in both the prevention and the aftermath of disaster situations.

The Getty Conservation Institute and ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) took part in this programme and helped develop training tools for MEP. ICOM’s action programme offers a long-term global response that strengthens the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) dynamism.

International Museum Day

Every year since 1977, ICOM has organised International Museum Day, a worldwide event held around 18 May.^[9] From America and Oceania to Europe, Asia and Africa, International Museum Day aims to increase public awareness of the role of museums in developing society.

Committees

ICOM comprises also 118 national committees that ensure that the interests of the organisation are managed in their respective countries. The national committees represent their members within ICOM and they contribute to the implementation of the organisation’s programmes.

General conference

The ICOM General conference is held every three years and gathers museum professionals from several countries. The first meeting was held in Paris in 1948. In recent years, General Conferences have been held in Seoul in 2004 (the first meeting in Asia), in Vienna in 2007, and in Shanghai in 2010. This 22nd General Conference in Shanghai followed the World Expo where an ICOM’s Pavilion was inaugurated and named “Museums, Heart of the City”.^[15] The General Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and in Milan in 2016. The next one will be held in 2019, in Kyoto.

Governance

The current ICOM President is Ms. Suay Aksoy.^[16] She succeeded Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz (2010-2016).^[17] The current director general is Dr. Peter Keller.^[18] He succeeded Prof. Dr. Anne-Catherine Robert-Hauglustaine (2014-2016) and Ms. Hanna Pennock (2013-2014).

Presidents

No.	Period	Name	Countries
1	1946-1953	Chauncey Hamlin	United States
2	1953-1959	Georges Salles	France
3	1959-1965	Philip Hendy	United Kingdom
4	1965-1971	Arthur van Schendel	Netherlands
5	1971-1977	Jan Jelínek	Czechoslovakia
6	1977-1983	Hubert Landais	France
7	1983-1989	Geoffrey Lewis	United Kingdom
8	1989-1992	Alpha Oumar Konaré	Mali
9	1992-1998	Saroj Ghose	India
10	1998-2004	Jacques Perot	France
11	2004-2010	Alissandra Cummins	Barbados
12	2010-2016	Hans-Martin Hinz	Germany
13	2016-	Suay Aksoy	Turkey

CIDOC conceptual reference model

CIDOC, ICOM's International Committee for Documentation, provides the museum community with standards and advice on museum documentation.^[19]

The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM), formalised as the official international standard ISO 21127, is used to map cultural heritage information to a common and extensible semantic framework. This "semantic glue" can be used to connect between different sources of cultural heritage information published by museums, libraries and archives.^[20]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to International Council of Museums.

• ICOM website
• UNESCO's Website
• ICOM-CC
• ICAMT