EPICO - European Protocol In Preventive Conservation, phase 1

Work published with the scientific support of the CRCV and resulting from the research programme “EPICO - Preventive Conservation in Historic Houses and Palace-museums – methodologies and applications” led by the Research Centre.

EPICO - European Protocol In Preventive Conservation, phase 1. Methods for conservation assessment of collections in historic houses, sous la direction de Danielo Forleo avec S. De Blasi, N. Francaviglia, A. Pawlak, Cronache n°7, Genova : Sagep Editori, Collana del Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale, 2017, 184 p., 21 x 29,5 cm, €25 (ISBN: 978-88-6373-494-2).

The first phase of the “EPICO” programme reviewed various existing methods for the assessment of the state and conservation conditions of collections.
Two approaches emerge as those most often used in European and International heritage institutions:
an assessment based on the collections condition survey
and the risk assessment, developed particularly by the ICC and disseminated by ICCROM.
Which of these methods allows one to have a comprehensive and exhaustive vision of the historic house without requiring a complete, and thus time consuming, survey of all the objects and settings? Since the two approaches are equally valid, an intersection of the two seems possible, and pilot schemes of this combined approach have already been made. The objective of our research is to answer this question, in an attempt to bring to light the method that is best suited to the conservation of historic houses.