UNESCO training workshop on documentation and inventory in Tehran, Iran

21 national museum institutions in Iran joined the UNESCO training workshop on documentation and inventory of museum collections to reinforce the protection and promotion of national heritage.

Staff responsible for Iran’s museums’ documentation gathered from 29 to 31 January 2017 in Tehran to attend a three day workshop led by UNESCO’s Museums Programme Coordinator Nao Hayashi and national facilitators.

The training workshop is organized by UNESCO’s Tehran Cluster Office in cooperation with the Iranian Cultural Heritage Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, ICOM Iran and the Research Centre of the Iranian Cultural Heritage Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

The objectives of this workshop is to share information on the necessary connection between the work of documenting heritage and the reinforcement of international and national legal instruments such as the UNESCO 1970 Convention and the 2015 Recommendation.

21 representatives from a variety of museum institutions in Iran shared the current state of their documentation and inventories, reflected on the ways they should go to improve the documentation practices as well as possible mutual assistance in the field of protection and promotion of museums and collections.

With the arrest of 1,758 cultural heritage smugglers in the first nine months of the current Iranian year (which started March 20 last), there is a clear need to ensure the rigorous and standardized documentation of heritage to facilitate museums’ daily work as well as for a swift intervention in case of theft and loss. 

The necessity of documentation also applies to archeological sites and storage.

The attending group and the organizers will aim to monitor the progress made by improved strategies and actions by the end of the year 2017, in light of the Recommendation adopted at the end of the workshop.