Planning the Safeguarding of Cultural Property in Archaeological Museums. The case of the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale (National Archaeological Museum)

This paper presents a case study conducted at the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale (National Archaeology Museum) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, to initiate the implementation of a Disaster Risk Management (DRM) strategy as part of the museum’s wider safeguarding plan to protect its archaeological collections from potential risks. It responds to calls from both national and international cultural organisations to implement DRM strategies within cultural heritage institutions, emphasising the importance of preparedness in an era marked by increasing in frequency and intensity of natural and anthropogenic disasters worldwide. This study draws on guidelines published by international cultural organisations to implement the first stage of the DRM cycle, to assess, mitigate, and prepare for potential risks. Having identified fire as the primary risk capable of causing irreversible damage to the museum’s collections, an evacuation-based approach is determined to be the optimal solution to safeguard collections, through which the study then proposes and develops a database application to ensure effective and efficient emergency evacuations when needed. The resulting database has been adopted as the foundation of the museum’s DRM strategy and provides a valuable reference for cultural institutions housing moveable heritage. In summary, this study offers a blueprint for mitigating and countering risks to protect invaluable heritage for the future.