Determining the Effect of Preventive Conservation in Private Collections on the Cultural Values

Applying preventive conservation methods to protect the cultural heritages is one the most important subjects among the conservators. Preventive conservation is the best method that can be implemented in the museums. But the point comes out when one notices that numerous valuable cultural heritages are protected in the private homes or what is called private collections. That is why there are various attempts to extend the practice of preventive conservation in these collections around the globe. In Iran, despite the large numbers of private collections, there are many problems regarding preventive conservation which comes out of various reasons. Due to the importance of preventive actions toward the cultural heritages, this article tries to determine the effect of applying preventive conservation practice in private collections in Iran regarding the cultural values of their items. The applied method is a quantitative-qualitative one. In the qualitative section we have interviwed 14 experts in the field of cultural heritages, collection owners and museum. The reliability and narration of the deep interviews have been checked. Analyzing the obtained information was done by using Stevick-Collaizzi-Keen method. In the second and quantitative part, we have used the results of the first part to determine the details of a questionnaire and using Cochran formula, the size of sample society has been determined. Based on that, the questionnaire has been completed by 96 collectors around the country, Friedmann test gave us the priority of the components. Our results show that the effects of not applying or improper applying of preventive conservation methods in private collections can be expressed in three levels which contains the physical destruction of the items, destruction of their cultural values and at last, material and spiritual loss for the collectors. Based on the results, the most important effects of not applying or improper applying of preventive conservation methods in private collections, is cultural values destruction.