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By Bill Anderson, Art Guard This article first appeared on the Art Guard blog, December 10, 2024 If diminished funding and smaller budgets aren’t enough to challenge the existence of many museums we were reminded of another glaring vulnerability. Smash-and-grab assaults occurred in two smaller French museums in the last several weeks. At the Cognacq-Jay…
By now, most of us have seen these images. A pair or small group of environmental activists stage a protest in front of a high-profile painting, artifact, or historic monument. Some splash it with paint, soup, or cake. Many glue their hands to the front of the artwork directly or to the protective glass; others…
In recent years, a troubling trend has emerged as climate activists, protestors, and other bad actors have targeted priceless works of art and other cultural objects for damage and destruction. These acts, often intended to draw attention to urgent issues, instead leave lasting scars on humanity’s cultural heritage and the institutions that house and protect…
Securing a museum, like all other forms of security, requires a careful balancing act between protection and accessibility. Consider a jewelry store. In order to sell valuable gems, customers must be able to see them, first through clear glass cases and then, should they be interested in a purchase, outside of the case and up…
It’s not just about theft. Far from it. While big heists grab the headlines and documentaries (and book deals, I should humbly add), there exists a much more common threat to museum collections, and one that is far more difficult to prevent—vandalism. In 2021 an interesting piece in the Rochester City newspaper, by David Andreatta, brought this issue…