Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

This is the third report on the research on values and economics of cultural heritage which was started at the Getty Conservation Institute in 1995.1 The early results of this project highlighted some issues fundamental to the field that were in need of further consideration. Among these were the lack of recognized and widely accepted methodologies for the assessment of cultural values, as well as the difficulties of comparing the results of eco- nomic and cultural values assessments. The research we report in this publication starts to address these issues by focusing on methods of identify- ing, articulating, and establishing cultural significance. Cultural significance is used here to mean the importance of a site as determined by the aggregate of values attributed to it. The values considered in this process should include those held by expertsthe art historians, archaeologists, architects, and othersas well as other values brought forth by new stakeholders or constituents, such as social and economic values.2 Value has always been the reason underlying her- itage conservation. It is self-evident that no society makes an effort to conserve what it does not value. Why, then, this current interest in values? Until recent times, the heritage field was relatively isolated, composed of small groups of specialists and experts. These groups deter- mined what constituted heritage and how it should be conserved. The right to decide of these specialists was validated by the authorities who funded their work. There was a tacit agreement between the groups with the power to act.