away from its ‘home’ in a museum or library or storeroom. Environmental
conditions for storage, transport and display should be defined, controlled
and monitored.
Textiles, documents and paintings suffer irreversible damage if they are
displayed in galleries with high light levels, and monitoring the ultra-violet
levels is required. Metals recovered from the sea are often unstable especially
if the environment in a gallery is too moist or fluctuates wildly as the exter-
nal weather changes.
Gallery conditions required to mount a travelling exhibition are rigorous,
and they need to be defined and agreed before any agreement is made
between the owner and the exhibitor. Light levels, relative humidity and vio-
lent changes in room temperature are threats to delicate materials and all
material, whether it is recovered from the sea or from a land site, is vulner-
able if it is carelessly displayed or made available for handling by visitors
or school parties and the media. The use of white cotton gloves is now de
rigueur, but at one time the use of white gloves on a television programme
brought howls from the producer as the might ‘cause glare’. It is now
expected.
4 Museums: The Past into the Future
If we recognise that cultural material is a non-renewable resource that cannot
be replaced, we must preserve it. One way of avoiding the dangers of damage
by ill-advised or careless exhibitors is to furnish a loan exhibition with a care-
ful selection of stable material such as stone or ceramics illustrated with good
photographs, video or film and supported by first class replicas. Replicas of
metal objects, bone and glass can be made that faithfully recreate the form,
colour and density of the original. They are so good that they have to be marked
as replicas so as not to deceive the public.
It has been argued that the beauty of the Parthenon sculptures, now scattered
across 10 museums in eight countries, could be brought together in Athens or
the British Museum if every piece was scanned using laser technology to create
a 3D virtual reconstruction. This would allow scholars to study the monument
as it was, before it was partially destroyed in the early 19th century. The evi-
dence would remain unaffected by climate change and international politics and,
if required, full-scale replicas could be made using the accurate survey produced
by the laser scans.
Expensive? Yes. Worthwhile? Ask the public who save up for years to go
to Disneyland. Any popular use of good replicas for the purposes of education
or entertainment helps to maintain the physical integrity of an irreplaceable
object and the thrill a child gets handling and playing a unique 16th-century
musical instrument is not diminished by the fact that it is a skilful replica.
Introduction 11