CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an internationalagreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plantsdoes not threaten the survival of the species.
- What if your museum is presented with a donation of an object containing animal or plant parts that are possibly protectedunder this CITES law?
- Or your museum wants to buy an object containing (parts) of these protected plants and animals?
- How do you know that an animal or plant part is protected by the CITES law?
- And what is needed to legally acquire such an object?
Those are questions that I would like to discuss in my presentation about this convention and the acquiring of objects thatare protected by this law.

Founded in 2019, the Federation XPO, representing the Federation of Exhibition Designers, acts as a unifying force for stakeholders in the French exhibition ecosystem through its 10 associations and unions, which include more than 500 companies. Cultural Exhibitions are a priority for XPO due to their increasing role in the dissemination of knowledge, as highlighted in a groundbreaking 2023 study, co-initiated with the Cinov Federation. This study revealed that exhibitions attracted 117 million visitors in 2019 in France. Conscious of the environmental impact of the exhibitions, professionals have embraced sustainability, driven by the values of transmission and conservation inherent to their field.
XPO has embarked on an interdisciplinary approach, illustrated by the creation of the eco-design group. During a workshop in November 2023, XPO organized a seminar among federation professionals to compile best practices and challenges for each project phase. Subsequently, the eco-design group met for four sessions to develop the Manifesto for eco-design, presented at SITEM 2024. This Manifesto addresses key issues by advocating for the integration of environmental protection from the inception of the design process, involving stakeholders throughout the goods' value chain.
The Manifesto emphasizes a comprehensive approach, tailored to the exhibition's life cycle and concretized in 50 propositions declined in 6 steps. These propositions demonstrate XPO's commitment to fostering dialogue with cultural actors involved in exhibition production, with the overall goal of forging innovative tools and methods. By promoting eco-design, XPO strives to incorporate sustainable and environmentally friendly practices into the exhibition design profession. This initiative reflects a collective effort to align with evolving environmental imperatives and steer the industry towards a more sustainable future.

The European Registrars Group presents a Declaration and Environmental Guidelines focusing on museum climate control parameters. The aim is to create a document that is particularly relevant to Registrars and suggests implementation guidance for the Bizot Green Protocol of 2023.
The guidelines has – beyond mentioning the recommended climate ranges – attention to exceptions and areas of caution as well as recommendations that serve as inspiration for next steps. These include acceptance of the Bizot GreenProtocol of 2023 for loan as well as implementation at your own institution.
As registrars, we are aware that we need to operate with a common range in order to be able to present loans from many different lenders in the same exhibition environment and as such we strive towards as wide a range as possible maintaining the security of the object as our key point of focus.
When necessary, microclimate solutions can be implemented for exceptions, such as particularly sensitive works.
This new recommendation represents an updated default range as a starting point, replacing the tradition range of 20 +/-2˚C, 50% RH +/- 5%.
This shift toward broader climate parameters within the museum community is one of the highest impact changes we can make within our profession. Now is the time to act.

Since the reopening of the Rijksmuseum in 2013 and after the COVID pandemic, visitor numbers at the Rijksmuseumhave increased greatly. In 2023 we reached the number of 2.7 million visitors. At the same time, our storage rooms are fullwith objects that are seldom face to face with these visitors. How to combine all this to make the collection more visiblearound the country? The answer to this is firstly to be found in a generous loan policy and consequently in cooperationwith other institutions, we believe. It is important that registrars not only represent their own museums, but also seekconnections with colleagues from other institutions to make art accessible together. Not by imposing limits and restrictions,but by exploring the possibilities in collaboration.

In the last five years, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam organized two major touring exhibition projects within theNetherlands. Eefje van der Weijden (registrar of outgoing loans) coordinated the project ‘The four elements, treasuresfrom the Rijks’: a series of four complete exhibitions that toured to as many as six different regional city museums.Janneke Martens (registrar of outgoing loans) arranged a tour of a single object: the newly acquired painting TheVaandeldrager by Rembrandt. Eefje and Janneke would like to tell how they tackled organizing this, what challenges theycame across, what they learned from these projects and most of all how they learned from colleagues (and vice versa)from museums - often with limited staff.

ERC 24 is an opportunity to delve the past, the present and future of the Registrar’s profession, the formal recognition and its ethical nature, as well as giving us a chance to discuss key topics and trends in the field as MADE IN ITALY, SUSTAINABILITY and NEW FRONTIERS. The essence of ERC 2024 lies in the power of collaboration. It is through our collective efforts, thoughtful reflections, and open discussions that we have brought this vision to life. United by a shared belief in our mission, we have fostered a community where ideas flourish and common goals are pursued TOGETHER.

ERC 24 is also an opportunity to reflect with many voices on the fundamental role of the registrar in museums discussing the recent recognition of the profession by the Italian Ministry of Culture with decree no.1112 of 2ndJuly 2024, as well as to delve into the topic of the registrars’ status of employment considering the results of the European CHARTER project and the Art Operations Talent Report 2024 by Convelio x SML.

ICOM Italia