22 June. The international course on Preventive Conservation: Reducing risks to collections, co-organized by ICCROM and the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Affair was inaugurated this week in Sibiu, Romania, in the presence of Prof. Corneliu Bucur, Director General of the National Museum Complex 'ASTRA', the host institution.

This third course on the topic of risks is an outcome of ICCROM's partnership with the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN). It also benefits from the collaboration of the Canadian Museum of Nature, the National Museum in Belgrade - Diana Department for Preventive Conservation, the National Archives of Hungary and other institutions.

Twenty two participants from seventeen countries are attending the course.

The first week of the course focused on introducing the concepts and terminology of risk management, and on establishing a context for risk assessment. The ASTRA traditional, folk civilization museum serves as the course case-study during which participants will practice all the elements of a complete risk assessment and the development of risk treatment options. At the end of the week, the participants and the resource-team spoke at a mini-conference on 'Selecting and communicating preventive conservation priorities'.

Member States represented: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, China, Greece, Estonia, France, Hungary, Germany, Iran, Netherlands, Nigeria, Romania, United Kingdom

updated on: 24 November, 2007