Towards protecting museum antiquities from theft, damage

WHEN one talks about the museum, one is talking about antiquities, cultural items, among others that are kept in the museum.

These items, which date back to past periods of a people’s way of life, showcase how those people lived their lives in that era.

Like any item, the antiquities need to be protected from being damaged, either by insects/termites or stolen by criminals.

It is, therefore, the responsibility of the antiquity protection unit of each museum to ensure that the heritage items in their care are well looked after.

The antiquity protection unit comprises museum professionals who are in charge of museum collections.

The duties of antiquity protection officers cannot be quantified as they are responsible for the smooth running of the museum, including reporting diary and investigation report, among other vital tasks.

Since it has been noted that several artworks are stolen from museums across the world every year, it is important that antiquity protection officers are given the necessary support in order to discharge their expertise to prevent theft of these valuable items.

It must be noted that the black market value for stolen art is valued between $6 billion and $8 billion annually, therefore, this will keep encouraging criminals to make efforts to grab a share of this huge sum of money by stealing artworks.

In this regard, the antiquity protection officer should be able to do thorough background checks on staff members of the museum, volunteers and visitors who come into the museum so as to prevent ‘shock.’

The other area of protecting antiquities is to warn visitors not to touch any of the items, while the normal chemicals are also sprayed on the antiquities from time to time to prevent insects that eat woods from destroying the item.

It is also important for the officer to leverage on technology in order to protect antiquities, as this will make their work easier.

Installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) will definitely make the work easier instead of the officer monitoring people’s movements every minute.