Two operative risk indicators as tools for negotiating contracts between curators of Museums and HVAC technical services providers

Abstract The purpose of Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems in museums is to properly control important microclimate parameters; such systems, in fact, apart from ensuring the visitors’ wellbeing, are requested to guarantee suitable indoor conditions for the proper conservation of the important cultural goods hosted by museums. Hence, in case of disservice, or interruption due to maintenance interventions, it is important to quantify the economic damage induced to exhibited and/or stored works of art (or even to the building museum itself). Accordingly, it is essential to guarantee the shortest possible period of disservice during which probable damages for the works of art could occur. Since curators are the most relevant subjects committed to properly run the museum, also for what concerns the indoor environmental conditions, the aim of this work is to propose two new comprehensive operative damage risk indicators to support curators in negotiating the stipulation of contracts with the external companies in charge of the management of the HVAC system, in order to preserve the works of art. Particularly, these indicators try to integrate, into the contracts, economic considerations related to the system's disservice period and/or planned interruptions. The feasibility of the proposed new indicators has been checked by means of an example application involving the “Museo Regionale” of Palermo (Italy).