u Reality as illusion, the historic houses that become museums - Mónica Risnicoff de Gorgas

u Towards a definition and typology of historic house museums - Rosanna Pavoni

Conservation and Exhibition

u Conserving and restoring the Harawi and Al-Sinnari Houses in Cairo - Bernard Maury (ed.)

u Skokloster Castle - one of the world's foremost Baroque museums - Carin M. Bergström

u Exhibiting and communicating history and society in historic house museums - Magaly Cabral

Visitor management

u Versailles and its visiting public - Pascal Torres Guardiola

u Pierre Loti's House: the balancing act between exhibition and conservation - Gaby Scaon

Living Historic House Museums

u The Spanish royal palaces: compatibility management - Miguel Angel Recio Crespo

Miscellaneous

u Heritage and 'cultural assets' - Giovanni Pinna

Summary of Articles

  u Introduction to historic house museums - Giovanni Pinna

In November 1997, a major conference entitled Abitare la storia: Le dimore storiche-museo (Inhabiting History: Historical House Museums) was held in Genoa, the city of many palaces. On this occasion, the historic house museum, a rather particular type of museum, was extensively discussed for the very first time. The specific nature and values such museums were highlighted. Over forty experts, who are responsible for palaces and more modest residences, came to Genoa for the conference. They debated aspects of restoration, security, teaching and communication. The conference participants took the opportunity to express their wish for the International Council of Museums (ICOM) to set up an international committee more specifically dedicated to historic house museums. They asked ICOM Italia, which was also present at the conference, to support their recommendation for the creation of the new committee, and this was done in 1998. Giovanni Pinna is the chairman of this newly created International Committee for Historic House Museums. He is president of the ICOM Italian Committee and also president of the ICOM International Committee for Museology of Historic Sites. A palaeontologist by training, he directed the Museum of Natural History in Milan from 1981 to 1996. He was published some sixty books and articles on various topics in the domain of theoretical museology as well as on the history and functions of museum institutions. His books include Museo: Storia e funzioni di una macchina culturale dal cinquecento a oggi (1980) and Fondamenti terici per un Museo DI Storia Naturale (1997).

u Reality as illusion, the historic houses that become museums - Mónica Risnicoff de Gorgas

A linear museological approach is only partially satisfactory when studying historic house museums. The complexity of the historic house as museum requires that the observer learn how to 'read' it both as object and as a museum. House museums combine history and dream, suggests Mónica Risnicoff de Gorgas, who is director of the Virrey Liniers Casa Museo Histórico Nacional in Alta Gracia, Córdoba, Argentina. She is a deputy member of the Argentine Committee of ICOM, and as an active member of ICOFOM has participated in symposia and congresses, both in Argentina and abroad. She has worked as co-ordinator of the Organization of American States (OAS) Project for setting up workshops for children in the National Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was responsible for the museum department of the Cultural Heritage Authority of the Province of Córdoba, directed the rehabilitation of the museums of the Province of Córdoba and provided technical assistance on many occasions to museums in Argentina. She has given numerous lectures and classes and her published work include Importancia del Museo en la Educación; El museo como recurso didáctico en la Educación Sistemática (The museum as a didactic recourse in systematic education); Museos de hoy para el mundo de mañana (Museums of today for the world of tomorrow); Los museos y la crisis de los pueblos de identidad concurrente (Museums and the Crisis of Peoples with Plural Identities); Museos a la búsqueda de la memoria perdida (Museums in Search of Lost Memory).

u Towards a definition and typology of historic house museums - Rosanna Pavoni

Houses, however resplendent, are part of everyone's common experience,' and this, according to Dr Rosanna Pavoni, helps to simplify the presentation of history to the visitors of historic house museums. This article presents a starting point for defining house museums based on the wide professional experience of Dr Pavoni, who is administrative secretary of the International Committee for Historic House Museums (DemHist). The rediscovery of Renaissance forms and culture during the second half of the nineteenth century has been the basic theme of all her research, conferences, exhibitions, publications and professional activities for the past fifteen years. This theme, also linked to the history of collections and the evolution of taste in interior decoration, uses the artistic whole of the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan (Italy) (house and art collections) as a model and also as a source of very important documents. Dr Pavoni has written extensively, and has also edited works, on the Neo-Renaissance and on art collecting as exemplified in the Bagatti Vasecchi Museum. She has also founded, and is the editor of, the Italian/English publications of the Bagatti Vasecchi Museum under the title of Appunti del Museo Bagatti Vasecchi (Notes of the Bagatti Vasecchi Museum), the fifth and most recent volume of which deals with the restoration of nineteenth-century decorative art and culture. Since 1988, she has been director of the Bagatti Vasecchi Museum.

u Conserving and restoring the Harawi and Al-Sinnari Houses in Cairo - Bernard Maury (ed.)

The preliminary studies conducted on Harawi House in Cairo (Egypt) in the 1970s added to the historical knowledge of the edifice. In addition, the work undertaken since 1986 has either confirmed assumptions or enabled discoveries that shed fresh light on the lives that have been lived in these houses. The technical achievements carried out in restoring the Al-Sinnari House, also in Cairo, are presented in the second part of the article. Bernard Maury was appointed to head the Mission française de cooperation pour la sauvegarde du Caire Islamique (French Co-operative Task Force for the Conservation of Islamic Cairo). Museum International wishes to thank Bernard Maury for providing the original material that forms the basis of this article.

u Skokloster Castle - one of the world's foremost Baroque museums - Carin M. Bergström

Carin M. Bergström is the director of Skokloster Castle, built in the seventeenth century in Sweden, and open to the public today as a Swedish state museum. Several aspects of the technical and practical decisions requisite for historic house museum management are presented in this article, particularly as regards building structure, book collections, metal objects and fabrics.

u Exhibiting and communicating history and society in historic house museums - Magaly Cabral

Any scientific or pedagogical operation concerning heritage is a metalanguage. It does not make objects speak, but it talks about them, in the words of Magaly Cabral. The historic house museum is not just a house that is a … museum. In historic house museums, the actual building, the collection and the person who lived in the house are closely linked as to practically fuse. This makes for a relationship that is conductive to communication, according to the author. Magaly Cabral's analysis of the problems encountered in deciding what to communicate in setting up house museums is both pertinent and pithy. The anecdote about the Comte sisters' 'museumizing' their house by putting under glass in France, and her comment that 'setting up an entire house in its original state is only the beginning of a long path', force us to reflect on the museological commitments involved in transforming living space into house museums. The author clearly 'intends to provoke some thought about the educational purpose of the historic house museum, taking into consideration some of the tools that help in the process of communicating with the public and with which objectives they are employed'. Magaly Cabral, who holds a Master's degree in museum education, is director of the Memory and Documentation Centre of the House of Rui Barebosa Foundation/Ministry of Culture, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the DemHist regional co-ordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, former CERCA regional co-ordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean and former Brazilian National Committee Treasurer.

u Versailles and its visiting public - Pascal Torres Guardiola

Pascal Torres Guardiola is curator at the Graphic Art Department at the Louvre, and former curator at the Château of Versailles. The information concerning the choice of current cultural policy at Versailles was transmitted by Ms Beatrix Saule, general conservator and head of cultural services at the Château of Versailles.

u Pierre Loti's House: the balancing act between exhibition and conservation - Gaby Scaon

Can a museum become too popular for its own good? Baby Scaon, curator of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire and the Pierre Loti House in Rochefort (France), discusses the problems involved in managing a historic house museum where the numbers of visitors simply can not all be accommodated, giving practical and valuable suggestions. Gaby Scaon, who holds a degree in ethnology, has directed the Ecomuseum in the Brittany region in France, and has recently launched the cultural project and scientific programme for restructuring the Musée d'art et d'Histoire in Rochefort along the lines of a museum of urban history. The author has published several articles on Pierre Loti's house, and has also published the catalogue Bleu, a collection of twenty-two artists on the colour blue.

u The Spanish royal palaces: compatibility management - Miguel Angel Recio Crespo

Royal residences in countries where various forms of monarchy prevail, constitute a particular type of house museum, from the management point of view, because they are homes, not only historic houses. Careful administration makes it possible to juxtapose multiple usage into one location, on condition that a certain level of compatibility be taken into consideration. Miguel Angel Recio Crespo holds degrees in law and business administration. Since 1997, he has been director of the administrative board of the Spanish National Heritage and vice-president of the executive board of the UNESCO-ICOM International Committee for Historic House Museums (DemHist).