It is the secret document of salvation

Yeah your house starts to burnWhat is the first thing you would save? Surely you have asked yourself that question more than once, with a very clear answer in your head that, once you save what you love most, it is completed with “if I can take more than one trip, I would take this and that.” Being prepared is not badbut… what if instead of personal objects, you had a museum with hundreds of unique objects and works of enormous value?

They have thought about that. And the plan is perfectly imperfect.

Grab lists. Whether of greater or lesser importance, everyone has unique pieces in the form of artistic creations or elements that have helped us understand and admire the past. And, when there is an emergency, you cannot improvise. That is why each museum has a salvage list or priority list that basically lists the most important objects for the institution and puts them on a list with all the details to keep the piece safe.

Because we don’t talk about robbery cases like that of the Louvrebut fireswater leaks, gas leaks, floods and even terrorism. In short, it is a printed and secret plan that museums wish to never have to use for logistical reasons, but also for ethical reasons and responsibility with the art they treasure.

How to do it. In this document We see it as a guide to react and make the list. They range from small museums, where perhaps more material can be saved, to large museums where the pieces must be organized in detail. If something happens, the rescue list is given to the emergency services (firefighters during a fire, for example), and should be compiled based on:

• The rarity of the item.
• Its value (although they indicate that it should not be the only element to consider, we will see what happens when there is a lot of money at stake).
• An important historical link to the museum or city.
• Its vulnerability to fire or floods.

An example. The guide is a sample of that safety document that tells staff how to react to different conditions. For example, if there is an electrical failure, recommendations are given such as assessing whether there is a risk of electrocution and, if everything is safe, starting to proceed. If there is an insect infestation, it is indicated how to save the works. But what interests us are the examples of the priority list.

On a map of the museum, they indicate which works need to be saved, accompanied by the number they have on that priority list.

But, in addition, a series of instructions must be given so that personnel outside the museum (the aforementioned firefighters, for example) are clear about how to act. In this table, the guide includes the reference number of the object, a photo of it so that you are clear about what it is, if keys are needed to access the display case and where they are, as well as handling recommendations (gloves, box, etc.) and how many people are needed to move it. Do not overwhelm with details: the more concise, the better.

Powerful knight… That they are secret documents is more than necessary for a very obvious reason: no one who is not strictly involved with the construction security service can know which objects are on the list because there could be leaks. Because, as you may be thinking, the most monetary valuable items would be the first to go out the door in armored trucks.

Because maybe he bone of a T-Rex It may be very important on a scientific level, but it will not be worth the same as a painting by a renowned painter. Each object has its insurance premium, and when there is a crisis, the priority is usually clear: save what is expensive. And there is a perfect example: ‘Mural’, by Jackson Pollock.

It’s not hypothetical. In a fantastic report by The Economist The case of the aforementioned work by Pollock is presented. Answering how much art is worth is, to say the least, complex, but specifically, ‘Mural’ is valued at 140 million dollars. Painted in 1948, due to different factors it ended up in the University of Iowa Museum of Art. It is, like many other important museums, one that is attached to a river, and in 1993 the first “notice” came. A flood caused water to leak onto the university campus. He sneaked into the basement and warehouse, but the exhibitions continued to be set up and running.

In 2008, things changed. A heavy snowfall meant that the ground could not absorb as much water, so the Iowa River overflowed and levels rose. The reservoir to which the city entrusts its protection could not handle that amount of water and had to be evacuated.

Decide between two children. At a meeting, those responsible for the safety of the works did not know what to save, so the most interested came in: the museum’s insurer. It is at that moment in which the cultural value and the importance of the roots of the work are put aside to reflect reality: money and the value of the work prioritizes which ones will be saved first.

With water at the doors, a few days before the museum was flooded, ‘Mural‘He left on his way to Chicago in an armored truck. Another work, ‘Karneval‘, a 1943 triptych by Max Beckmann, was also transported to the same facility in Chicago, but on a separate truck. Reason? The director of the university told journalists that these works were being moved and the museum management saw it as a reckless act.

“Our collection is insured for a third of a billion dollars and now we have people telling the world it’s on its way to Chicago,” said Pamela White, the museum’s acting director.

Beyond money. Museum staff moved more than 10,000 works in total, protecting those they had not been able to evacuate and placing them on high shelves. They had one hour before the National Guard closed the museum, and once it was closed, they could only hope that it would protect them.

The question is obvious: to what extent is the museum an institution intended to preserve art for future generations or is it a way to profit from it through admissions and, when a disaster looms, everything is abandoned to give priority to what is considered most valuable? The answer is complicated, and even contradictory.

Katty Hayslett is one of the museum’s curators and account their concern at seeing how the most valuable ones were left armored up to the eyebrows while works of African, pre-Columbian and Native American art, which were not considered so relevant, were abandoned to their fate. Therefore, they were lower on the priority list when they are an irreplaceable part of the cultural heritage.

Practicality. Nathalie Jacqueminet is the conservation manager at the National Gallery of Iceland and, after attending a conference on how some works were saved in the Notre Dame fire in which firefighters advised that the list should be reduced to just five pieces, he created his own rescue plan for his gallery.

Because the flood at the Iowa museum was seen coming, but something like a fire is impossible to foresee and the recommendation is that the most important and main objects be placed near the exit and emergency doors. It is something that may force you to rethink some collections, but you have to think that quick decisions must be made, that the firefighters’ priority is to extinguish the fire and that they must have it as easy as possible to save those pieces.

Alternative strategy: castle-museums. Now, while there are institutions with meticulous rescue plans for their works, others have chosen the opposite route: closing themselves firmly, like a modern fortress prepared for the end of the world. It is the example of the Getty Villa, one of the richest museums in the world that, located in Los Angeles, does not worry about floods or fires. In The Economist report, the museum director stated that they have “the safest building in Los Angeles. The rest could be rubble on the ground while the museum still stands.”

Billions of dollars have been necessary to create that bunker, which has its own logistics tunnels that can serve as an evacuation gallery and that, during the terrible fires of a few months ago, kept its galleries full of works of art perfectly without needing to implement any evacuation plan.

In the end, this is something that not all museums can afford, but with many of them near rivers (the Tate in London or the Louvre in Paris) and threats of flooding due to climate change, the next time I visit a museum I will look at which works are near emergency exits… and which ones are most likely to be saved first.

Images | Bobak Ha’Eri, Haeferl

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