International Council of Museums


Created in 1946, the International Council of Museums is a non-governmental organisation maintaining formal relations with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. ICOM also partners with entities such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, Interpol, and the World Customs Organization in order to carry out its international public service missions, which include fighting illicit traffic in cultural goods and promoting risk management and emergency preparedness to protect world cultural heritage in the event of natural or man-made disasters. Members of the ICOM get the ICOM membership card, which provides free entry, or entry at a reduced rate, to many museums all over the world.

Code of ethics for museums

ICOM adopted its ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums 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.

Fighting illicit traffic

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 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, its Museums Emergency Programme and its active role in the Blue Shield, 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 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.

International Museum Day

Every year since 1977, ICOM has organised International Museum Day, a worldwide event held around 18 May. 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.

Committees


ICOM operates 34 international committees on a range of museum specialties, who conduct advanced research in their respective fields for the benefit of the museum community.
  • AFRICOM - International Council of African Museums
  • AVICOM - Audio-visual & New Technologies and Social Media
  • CAMOC - Museums of Cities
  • CECA - Education & Cultural Action
  • CIDOC - Documentation
  • CIMCIM - Musical Instruments
  • CIMUSET - Science & Technology
  • COMCOL - Collecting
  • COSTUME - International Committee for Museums and Collections of Costume
  • DEMHIST - Historic House Museums
  • GLASS
  • ICAMT- Architecture & Museum Techniques
  • ICDAD - Decorative Arts and Design
  • ICEE - Exhibition Exchange
  • ICFA - Fine Arts
  • ICLM - Literary Museums
  • ICMAH - Archaeology & History
  • ICME - Ethnography
  • ICMEMO - Memorial Museums
  • ICMS - Museum Security
  • ICR - Regional Museums
  • ICOFOM - Museology
  • ICOMAM - Arms & Military History
  • ICOM-CC - Conservation
  • ICOMON - Money & Banking Museums
  • ICTOP - Training of Personnel
  • INTERCOM - Management
  • NATHIST - Natural History
  • ICOM MPR : this committee was founded in 1977 by Jan Jelínek, and provides training for museum professionals in marketing and communications, through annual conferences and a regular online newsletter. The most recent conference was held in Armenia in 2015, with the theme of “Emerging Trends”. Previous conferences have been held in Taiwan, Rio de Janeiro, Palermo, Brno, Shanghai, Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, and Paraty and Rio de Janeiro. The MPR board consists of marketing and communication museum professionals from several countries. Each member is elected for a 3-year term at ICOM General Conferences.
  • UMAC - University Museums
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.

General conference

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, 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”. 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.

Governance

The current ICOM President is Mr. Alberto Garlandini. He succeeded Ms. Suay Aksoy who resigned in June 2020. The current director general is Dr. Peter Keller. He succeeded Prof. Dr. Anne-Catherine Robert-Hauglustaine and Ms. Hanna Pennock.

Presidents


No.PeriodNameCountry
11946–1953Chauncey Hamlin
21953–1959Georges Salles
31959–1965Philip Hendy
41965–1971Arthur van Schendel
51971–1977Jan Jelínek
61977–1983Hubert Landais
71983–1989Geoffrey Lewis
81989–1992Alpha Oumar Konaré
91992–1998Saroj Ghose
101998–2004Jacques Perot
112004–2010Alissandra Cummins
122010–2016Hans-Martin Hinz
132016–2020Suay Aksoy
142020–Alberto Garlandini

CIDOC conceptual reference model

CIDOC, ICOM's International Committee for Documentation, provides the museum community with standards and advice on museum documentation.
The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, 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.

Online museums

ICOM was the first international organization to participate in the Virtual Library museums pages online museums directory in the 1990s. It was also instrumental in the creation of the ".museum" top-level domain for museums online through the Museum Domain Management Association.