TEHRAN – Ahmad Arabi, a senior official in the Tehran city council, has announced that plans have been approved to build four safe depository facilities designed to protect ancient artifacts and museum items during the conflict.
He told Irna: “Our problem is not the depository. In fact, there is no shortage of depository institutions as storage to maintain valuable items. The problem is that there is no safe place for museum items during times of crisis such as war. There is limited place to maintain museum items in Tehran.”
Regarding the construction of a new depository institution in Tehran, he said: “This issue was discussed during a session with the Cultural Committee of Tehran City Council and the research institute of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The Cultural Committee was that Tehran Municipalities must be required to establish four spots in Tehran to establish the residence of the four Tehran residents of the four Tehran settlements, nine deposits to maintain the cultural heritage.
Because it takes a lot of credit to do this, we put it down until the next year so that the budget is taken into consideration. ”
According to a statement from the Iranian Museum Director, there are only 68 temporary safe depository institutions across the country, of which six deposits have special museum standards.
Therefore, it was decided that a safe deposit would be constructed to maintain the scientific cooperation of the Cultural Heritage Committee of the Tehran Islamic City Council and the Institute of Joint Heritage Research Institute, in order to preserve ancient and museum items in different parts of the capital alongside protecting Tehran cultural identity.
A few weeks after the halt in a 12-day Israeli-imposed war with Iran, Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage Ali Dharabi announced the development of a three-stage plan for the safe and progressive reopening of museums and historic sites.
He also said the roadmap was designed with the line of the 1954 Hague Convention, which aimed to protect cultural assets such as cultural crisis management learning and the monuments of architecture, art, history, archaeological sites, artworks and manuscripts. The concentration, he added, is recreating the social role of organizations in protecting the country’s identity assets and maintaining cultural heritage.
He explained that the plan will be implemented in three phases. First, a limited professional base reopening (for a month): This stage will take place in low-risk states with approval from the state’s supply council, with visits being made proportional to the site’s capabilities and resilience.
Priorities are found in sites that do not have museums and are in open spaces, as well as archaeological sites such as Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Taq-e Bostan, Bisotun, Iranian gardens, historic mosques and Bamsitadel.
Darabi explained that the second phase, including the expansion of phased reopening, will be put into practice one month after the implementation of the first phase. At this stage, other museums and stations will gradually resume with observation of their obligation to protect themselves, he added.
According to him, the third stage involves a return to the normal pattern of full reopening and museum exploitation.
At this stage, he said that upon receiving the final report from the security organisation on the stability of conditions, the museums and stations will be fully reopened, and sideline services such as stores, cafe museums and collaboration will resume.
At the end of this phase, reports on the performance of the Crisis Task Force, documentation of lessons and assessments of the protection checklist will be featured on the agenda, he added.
Darabi emphasized that the progressive and safe reopening of national museums and historical stations is a measure of returning to stable cultural conditions, a smart pattern for managing the cultural heritage sector in high-risk conditions.
KD