On 10 October 2018, ICCROM’s Director General, Webber Ndoro, and Gaël de Guichen signed an agreement for the donation of Mr. de Guichen’s archive to ICCROM. The aim is to ensure both conservation and access to researchers of these valuable records.
Mr. de Guichen, former ICCROM staff, is an internationally recognized conservation professional who contributed in developing the concept of preventive conservation in museums. He led ICCROM’s first long-term regional programme, PREMA (1986-2000), focusing on the preservation of museum collections in Africa. He has also worked to involve media and youth in heritage preservation (through the Media Save Art programme, 1991-2001). Recently, he has actively focused on the RE-ORG programme for the reorganization of museum storage areas. An excellent communicator, de Guichen is well-known for his didactic teaching methods.
ICCROM is honoured to receive his archive, which spans from 1957 to 2018. The archive, composed of ca. 20 linear meters, contains a rich photographic collection depicting heritage deterioration caused by natural and human agents, especially in museum collections, from all over the world (55 countries). The archive also contains Mr. de Guichen’s digital and paper records produced for conferences, lectures, articles and missions. In addition, it holds a series of livres d’or, memory books documenting the donor’s active social life (1976-2018) closely linked to the conservation field and its professionals worldwide.