Day: August 31, 2025

Cultural heritage is a precious legacy of our ancestors, which has shaped and continues to shape the cultural identity of human societies worldwide. It is a fundamental source of inspiration and pride that can empower people to cope with current challenges, to face up to threats, and to design their own futures. It is therefore crucial to ensure that cultural heritage can continue to serve as a source of knowledge, culture, and identity.

The term ‘cultural heritage’ encompasses both tangible and intangible manifestations of a society, from its historical buildings and art collections to its traditional way of life. Tangible cultural heritage includes monuments of historical or architectural value, such as temples and castles; archaeological sites (burial grounds, places of worship, and settlements); artifacts that represent past cultures (tools, pottery, clothing, and jewelry); and other physical assets such as landscapes with natural heritage. Intangible cultural heritage, on the other hand, refers to non-physical aspects of a community’s culture that are not easily captured in the form of material objects or artifacts: traditions, beliefs, values, languages, folklore, and cuisine.

It is a complex and difficult task to preserve heritage, because of the many factors that can contribute to its loss. Benign neglect, devastating accidents, major natural disasters, and even the effects of climate change can cause significant damage to heritage, ranging from the destruction of historic buildings or museums to the disappearance of cultural traditions in living communities. The purposeful actions of nonstate armed groups, militias, and despotic governments can cause losses that are even more severe, as they destroy heritage with the aim of destroying a community’s identity, and even its existence.

These factors highlight the importance of ensuring that heritage is protected and preserved in a safe haven, so that it can be accessible to people around the world. In addition to its intrinsic value as a source of history and identity, it is also important for the economy, as it provides opportunities for tourism and promotes economic development in the countries that protect their cultural heritage.

The concept of protecting cultural heritage for future generations is a guiding principle for international law. It is recognized in both hard and soft instruments, at the treaty and case law levels. Despite this, the meaning and content of these references to future generations remains vague and fragmentary.

The reason for this is that the notion of a future generation is a highly contested one, especially as cultural boundaries are increasingly becoming less and less defined. The influence of other cultures on each other’s work, whether in the form of Japanese prints on Paul Gauguin’s paintings or neoclassical architecture on Liberian homes built by freed African-American enslaved persons, demonstrates how much we can learn from each other despite our differences. This is why the notion of the “future generation” has become such a pervasive part of international law. However, this approach does not provide sufficient clarity to allow us to define what is meant by it and how it should be implemented at the global level.

Everybody thinks they know what a museum is: a great big building in which we see works of art, natural or manufactured, preserved for posterity. The museum as a form of cultural heritage was born out of the Wunderkammern, or Cabinets of Curiosities, that royal courts and wealthy aristocrats began to build in the middle ages before reaching their peak with Napoleon’s Louvre from 1801.

In modern times museums have grown into multifaceted institutions with an extraordinary range of functions, displaying and interpreting art, natural history, science, technology and social and historical subjects. Their reach is global and their missions are many, from promoting civic pride to advocating for planetary wellbeing. Museums vary in size, scope and purpose and yet they all hold a common thread: a desire to preserve and interpret some aspect of humanity’s cultural consciousness.

For the most part museums are not profit-making enterprises and they work in active partnership with diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit and enhance understanding, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary well being. This is a more inclusive and polyphonic definition of the museum that recognises the need for dialogue, rather than the moralistic and ideological imperatives that can turn the space of wonder into a didactic ordeal.

Museums have always been contested spaces, and this is no different in the present day. In the past the debates centred on whether the museum was a place where culture died, or where its vitality could be restored through a re-interpreting mission. Today the debates are centred around the need to keep a museum’s collections fresh and engaging and how to engage a broad range of audience members.

One of the ways that museums maintain their collections and keep up to date with new research is through deaccessioning. This means that some works are sold on to other museums or lent out for special exhibitions. It is a controversial process that can affect the overall quality and significance of the collection. It can also have an effect on the museum’s finances, as it loses a significant source of income.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC is the largest museum in the world and is filled with dinosaur skeletons, mineral displays and an exploration of Earth science. The museum has dedicated exhibitions for children, and those with disabilities or sensory sensitivities. It also offers a monthly event called ‘Museum My Way’ where the noise level is reduced and activities are tailored to those with special needs.

Other museums in the top ten are The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum in London. Each requires a full day of exploring to fully appreciate its depth and breadth. The British Museum’s permanent collection is impressive in its own right, but it also houses one of the greatest treasure troves in Europe. In fact, it is a record holder for the number of items in its collection that have been verified as priceless.