International Council of Museums

ICOM adopted its ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums[6] in 1986, a reference tool that sets standards of excellence to which all members of the organisation must adhere. The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, translated into 39 languages and revised in 2006, establishes values and principles shared by ICOM and the international museum community. These standards of self-regulation by museums include basic principles for museum governance, the acquisition and disposal of collections, and rules for professional conduct.

Illicit traffic in cultural goods causes significant damage to heritage, particularly in regions of the world where cultural objects are most susceptible to theft and looting. Supporting the fight against illicit traffic in cultural goods is among ICOM’s highest priorities. In this context, ICOM publishes its Red List series[7] to raise awareness on smuggling and illicit trade in cultural objects. The ICOM Red Lists are tools designed to help police and customs officials, heritage professionals, and art and antiquities dealers to identify the types of objects that are most susceptible to illicit trafficking.

ICOM has already published Red Lists for many different countries and regions:

ICOM is committed to providing cultural institutions with the necessary support and risk prevention tools when faced with conflict situations or natural disasters. Through its Disaster Relief for Museums Task Force (DRTF), its Museums Emergency Programme (MEP) and its active role in the Blue Shield,[8] ICOM assists museums worldwide by mobilising its resources quickly and efficiently to provide support in both the prevention and the aftermath of disaster situations.

The Getty Conservation Institute and ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) took part in this programme and helped develop training tools for MEP. ICOM’s action programme offers a long-term global response that strengthens the Blue Shield dynamism.

Every year since 1977, ICOM has organised International Museum Day, a worldwide event held around 18 May.[9] From America and Oceania to Europe, Asia and Africa, International Museum Day aims to increase public awareness of the role of museums in developing society.

ICOM operates 34 international committees on a range of museum specialties,[10] who conduct advanced research in their respective fields for the benefit of the museum community.

ICOM comprises also 118 national committees that ensure that the interests of the organisation are managed in their respective countries. The national committees represent their members within ICOM and they contribute to the implementation of the organisation’s programmes.

The ICOM General conference is held every three years and gathers museum professionals from several countries. The first meeting was held in Paris in 1948. In recent years, General Conferences have been held in Seoul in 2004 (the first meeting in Asia), in Vienna in 2007, and in Shanghai in 2010. This 22nd General Conference in Shanghai followed the World Expo where an ICOM’s Pavilion was inaugurated and named “Museums, Heart of the City”.[16] The General Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and in Milan in 2016. The last one was held in 2019, in Kyoto.

The current ICOM President is Mr. Alberto Garlandini. He succeeded Ms. Suay Aksoy who resigned in June 2020 (2016–2020).[17] The current director general is Dr. Peter Keller.[18] He succeeded Prof. Dr. Anne-Catherine Robert-Hauglustaine (2014–2016) and Ms. Hanna Pennock (2013–2014).

Presidents

No.	Period	Name	Country
1	1946–1953	Chauncey Hamlin	United States
2	1953–1959	Georges Salles	France
3	1959–1965	Philip Hendy	United Kingdom
4	1965–1971	Arthur van Schendel	Netherlands
5	1971–1977	Jan Jelínek	Czechoslovakia
6	1977–1983	Hubert Landais	France
7	1983–1989	Geoffrey Lewis	United Kingdom
8	1989–1992	Alpha Oumar Konaré	Mali
9	1992–1998	Saroj Ghose	India
10	1998–2004	Jacques Perot	France
11	2004–2010	Alissandra Cummins	Barbados
12	2010–2016	Hans-Martin Hinz	Germany
13	2016–2020	Suay Aksoy	Turkey
14	2020–	Alberto Garlandini	Italy

CIDOC, ICOM's International Committee for Documentation, provides the museum community with standards and advice on museum documentation.[19]

The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM), formalised as the official international standard ISO 21127, is used to map cultural heritage information to a common and extensible semantic framework. This "semantic glue" can be used to connect between different sources of cultural heritage information published by museums, libraries and archives.[20]

ICOM was the first international organization to participate in the Virtual Library museums pages (VLmp) online museums directory in the 1990s.[21] It was also instrumental in the creation of the ".museum" top-level domain (TLD) for museums online[22] through the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma).[23]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to International Council of Museums.

• ICOM website
• UNESCO's Website
• ICOM-CC
• ICAMT
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art records regarding International Council of Museums, 1951-1965 from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York.