This document was scanned from AIC Newsletter, Vol 19, Number 3, May, 1994. The Ethics and Standards Committee is pleased to present to the AIC membership the revised AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice . During the past few years the committee has worked hard to produce a document that will better serve the present and future needs of our profession and that reflects the results of the intensive and productive dialogue the committee and the membership have shared during this long and difficult process. The committee feels that it is now time for the membership to commit to a vote on this revision. The primary goal of conservation professionals, individuals with extensive training and special expertise, is the preservation of cultural property.
Cultural property consists of individual objects or aggregate collections.
It is material which has significance that may be artistic, historic, scientific, religious, or social, and it is an invaluable and irreplaceable legacy that must be preserved for future generations. In striving to achieve this goal, conservation professionals assume certain obligations to the cultural property, to its owners and custodians, to the conservation profession, and to society as a whole. The conservation professional shall strive to attain the highest possible standards in all aspects of conservation, including, but not limited to, preventive conservation, examination, documentation, treatment, research, and education. All actions of the conservation professional must be governed by an informed respect for the cultural property, its unique character and significance, and the people or person who created it. While recognizing the right of society to make appropriate and respectful use of cultural property, the conservation professional shall serve as an advocate for the preservation of cultural property.