Ensuring the security of arts, museums and cultural heritage facilities during lockdown and beyond
A coordinated response effort from museums and cultural heritage institutions enable security directors to continue to ensure the security of their collections and facilities.
In March 2020, thieves pulled off a smash-and-grab job in the dead of the night, stealing Vincent van Goghs’s masterpiece, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884, from Netherland’s Singer Laren museum, exploiting the museum’s recent closure to help contain the spread of COVID-19. Around 3:15 a.m., the thieves smashed a glass door at the entrance, triggered an alarm system, and successfully stole the painting before law enforcement arrived.
Much like Singer Laren, other museums, galleries, libraries and cultural institutions in charge of protecting valuable and cultural assets remain temporarily closed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, 90% of the world’s museums or more than 85,000 in number, have temporarily closed their doors to protect the health and safety of staff and visitors, and nearly 13% of museums worldwide may never reopen after the COVID-19 shutdown, according to research by UNESCO and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).