The most recent publication in the Monuments & Sites series, International Principles of Preservation (report XX) by Michael Petzet, published in December 2009, has just been embargoed by ICOMOS itself. They claimed that it had not “undergone the usual editorial review nor any formal consultation with ICOMOS” and that it “represent a personal view of the preservation world, and as such should be published by the author in his own name and without direct ICOMOS involvement.”
You can read the full disclaimer at:
http://www.international.icomos.org/Disclaimer_Website-Mon-&-Sites-XX.pdf
Michael Petzet, president of the German National Committee of ICOMOS, is not best pleased with this. At a recent conference Conservation Turn - Return to Conservation: Challenges and Chances in a Changing World (Prague, 5 to 9 May 2010) Petzet gave a paper entitled Conservation or Managing Change? (The full paper, in English, can be downloaded from German ICOMOS).
In this he states:
“In my paper I dare quote from the introductory part of a publication called International Principles of Preservation (vol. XX of the Monuments and Sites series), which because of a few harmless remarks was interpreted as an attack on Australia. For that reason, the President of ICOMOS Australia, Dr. Susan McIntyre-Tamway, threatening to otherwise suspend payment of the membership fees to the headquarters in Paris, put this publication (under strange circumstances) was placed – so to speak – on an index of forbidden books.”In the paper Michael takes a stance against the degradation of conservation ethics and values. In particular, he criticises the approaches set out by Mr Gustavo Araoz (President of the ICOMOS International) in a discussion paper entitled Protecting heritage places under the new heritage paradigm & defining its tolerance for change, presented at an ICOMOS advisory committee meeting in La Valletta, Malta in October 2009. Prezet states that these guidelines “ignore fundamental experiences in theory and practice of conservation”. He explores a number of issues, including intangible values (and their artificial separation from tangible ones), problems with the Burra definition of place, the lack of desirability for the use of concepts such as the “tolerance for change”, etc. Michael's closing statements give you a flavour for the debate:
“Therefore, instead of an a priori “tolerance for change” based on whatever standards, which would condemn our colleagues working in conservation practice merely to act as supernumeraries (only watching change?), we should stick to our fundamental principles and fight for cultural heritage in a dramatically changing world. And in order to cope with this “leadership challenge for ICOMOS” we don’t need any fashionable paradigm shifts. Instead, what we need is serious work in conservation.”Interesting discussions must follow! Sadly, ICOMOS have pulled the Aroz paper from their own website (it was published in Issue 51 of their electronic news in November 2009 – this has now disappeared – see ICOMOS publications - what a shame). However, a copy of the text was posted on the Prague conference website as part of the invitation – just scroll down their web page to find it.
There is some good ground for discussion here – maybe we can organise a meet over the summer to explore?!
PS We don’t yet have a copy of the book in the Institute library, but one is on order! You can’t buy it through ICOMOS anymore, but Amazon still sells it.
