Around 63% of museums in Latin America and the Caribbean lack fine art storage spaces that were designed for that purpose, revealed research recently published by ICOM – the International Council of Museums. The proportion is higher only among institutions on the African continent, with 63.4% of responses indicating the existence of improvised spaces for housing collections.
The report, which is a very extensive one, paints a current picture of the situation of museums all over the world as regards the size of their collections and the conditions in which they are stored.
The work was carried out by the Working Group on Collections in Storage, created in December 2022 by ICOM, of which Alessandra Labate Rosso, partner and technical director of Clé Reserva Contemporânea, is a member. Information was gathered throughout 2023 by means of an online survey, with the participation of museum professionals from 1,132 institutions in more than 100 countries.
In Latin America and the Caribbean there were 81 responses, which point to a preponderance of collections considered small – in 72% of the responding museums in the region, the collection does not exceed 20,000 items. Some of the most frequently reported problems on the continent were the absence of fine art storage and a lack of equipment (62.96%), the non-existence of quarantine spaces (56.49%), overcrowded storage (54.32%), an incomplete documentation system (51.85%), a lack of maintenance for 10 years or more (32.1%) and imprecise location of objects in the database (32.1%).
According to the conclusions of the report, the current picture all over the world points to an ambiguous scenario, with fine art storage spaces existing in most institutions – albeit precarious ones in many cases – while at the same time these are full to capacity.
When necessary, many institutions turn to private fine art storage – as is the case with Clé Reserva Contemporânea, the only Brazilian company with fully climate-controlled warehouses and security and fire prevention systems operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a human presence. Clé today serves some of the most important Brazilian museums and collectors. Discover our services.
