American Museum Collections In Peril

“A survey of 3,370 institutions by the nonprofit group Heritage Preservation found that some 612 million artifacts – from photographs and paintings to nature specimens and pottery – are at risk of deterioration because they aren’t cared for properly. Nearly 60 percent of institutions surveyed acknowledged that light has damaged their collections, while 53 percent said moisture caused problems. And 26 percent of those surveyed have no special controls in place to protect their collections from light, temperature, and humidity. Perhaps most strikingly, 80 percent of the institutions surveyed don’t pay anyone to preserve their collections.