Preventive Conservation for Palace Museums

Palaces are cultural heritage sites that have survived from the past to the present day as symbols of a nation’s individual culture and civilization. The Ottoman Palaces which can be currently accessed reflect the architectural and aesthetic conception as well as the palace structure, annexation and gardens of the palace complexes of the period. For this reason, they should be protected as a priority as examples of unique cultural heritage. Some sections of these palaces built on the Bosphorus and in urban areas have survived to the present day, while some of the buildings and outbuildings could not be accessed due to damage from fires and earthquakes or expropriation works. As a result, the originality and integrity of the palace complex and its collections have also been distorted. Protection methods such as light, temperature, relative humidity, dust, vibration, air pollution, microbiological activity, and safety controls should be applied in the scope of preventive protection within the framework of national and international conservation principles. Preventive protection is an important contribution to the achievements in safeguarding historical heritage sites, to extend their life into future generations and the formation of cultural memory. The main purpose of museum palaces is to protect the collections stored within not only for a long time, but also safely. Therefore, museum protection strategies should aim for longterm protection. Many projects and scientific activities are being carried out in order to provide preventive protection conditions in indoor and outdoor sections of museum palaces in Europe. With these projects, national and international platforms are being established to eliminate risk factors that are detrimental to museum palace structures. In addition, periodic training on preservation methods should be given to directors and staff of museum palace collections. Destructive disasters such as fire, which can cause serious negative consequences, may occur naturally or may be attributable to human error and flaws. Risk assessment and emergency planning studies therefore have great importance faced with these destructive effects. Emergency procedures and plans should be developed by many stakeholder institutions as a matter of urgency. The aim of this work is to ensure the creation of a professional and detailed “risk management application” for potential risks in museum palaces. The establishment of a risk identification team and the documentation of all risks by this team would ensure that these risks are discussed and set up on