A Research On Ethical Issues Of Contemporary Museums

Problems or characteristics presented in the operation of museums are analyzed in this dissertation to analyze the meaning and significance of museum ethics. It can be said that,"museum ethics" is:Museums as public institutions, how to face and integrate internal and external resources, use their power of maintaining public collections, organizing exhibitions, and so on, and ultimately realize the public interest of all. The dissertation includes five chapters.In the1st Chapter, multiple identities of the contemporary museums, ethics and museum ethics, and cases about museums’ethical issues are examined. This research leads to the subject of this article. In addition, through the literature review and conceptual research, the background and scope of the dissertation is defined.Chapter2is about publicity and the foundation of museum ethics. The system of museum ethics is based on museums’ publicity. It determines that museums serve all the peoples’ public interests. Therefore, museums and their properties, including collections, belong to all public, while they are maintained and managed as public trust by the relevant government departments and museums.Chapter3is about public welfare and the institutional ethics of museums. Public welfare comes from public interest, and is different from the interests of institutions, individuals and groups of individuals. It means. that museums are non-profit organizations. However, this does not mean that museums cannot be related to any commercial behaviors. Within certain ethical framework, business activities should be seen.as appropriate behaviors. In addition, public welfare is the goal of museums’, institutional operation, and also the principles that should be held by the government and people who work for museums.Chapter4is about fairness and ethics in museum exhibitions. Fairness is particularly reflected in the museum’s exhibitions and activities. It contains three different contents:First, the relationship between objects and people in museums; second, how museum curators, sponsors and management agencies affect museum exhibitions; third, how should the diverse public be treated fairly yet reasonable differently.Chapter5shifts the focus to China’s particular embodies and the crux of museums’ ethical issues. Although the mechanism and mode of museum operation in China is different from the West, it should not make museum’s values and objectives differ. The last chapter first reviewed the changes of the museum concepts in China. Although the concept of museum was not introduced to China until late19th century, it showed obvious publicity at the beginning:emphasizing the relationship between museums and public life, concerning about the museum’s educational function, and reflecting the concepts of country and civics, and so on. However, these advanced concepts are not reflected by our museums today. The chapter tries to analyze the issues to be solved in real life, and propose feasible ways to establish the mechanism.of China’s museum ethics.