The International Exhibitions Insurance Program, explained plainly

A colleague at a state gallery once asked me, half joking, whether her regional museum could get onto “the government insurance thing” for a touring exhibition she was borrowing three objects for. The honest answer was no, and not because of paperwork or timing. The scheme she meant, the International Exhibitions Insurance Program, was never […]

What a regional museum with volunteer staff can actually do about security

I spent three years coordinating security for a regional gallery where the roster was built around who could make it in on a Tuesday. Some weeks that was two people. Some weeks it was one, and she was also running the front desk, answering the phone, and trying to remember whether the back door had […]

The Weeping Woman theft: what NGV’s 1986 case still teaches

Four screws. Thats roughly what was left on the picture rail at the National Gallery of Victoria on the morning of 2 August 1986, once someone noticed Pablo Picasso’s The Weeping Woman was no longer hanging where it should have been. No smashed glass, no forced door, no dramatic struggle. Someone had simply unscrewed the […]

What Australian Museums Are Actually Required to Do About Security

I spent years coordinating security for a regional gallery, and the question I got asked most often by the board was some version of “what are we actually required to have?” It’s a reasonable question. The honest answer, in Australia, is: less than most people assume. Every Institution Is Working From the Same Soft Standard […]