Conservation Department – General Information
The Conservation Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority was established in 1988 as the professional arm specializing in conservation. The aim of the department is to preserve the built cultural heritage of Israel from the state’s point of view of the entirety of the country’s cultural values. The department is charged with preserving the archaeological and cultural heritage values of the country through recognition of the importance and contribution of every culture created here to our lives now and for the education of future generations.
The department acts in accordance with a conservation policy that outlines the principals and decision making methods pertaining to the conservation of heritage sites and it is specified in a scheme of guidelines and standards defining the framework of conservation work subject to the Law of Antiquities. The current policy was formulated based on the Conservation Charter of 1997 and international accords, among them the Charter of Venice (1964), Charter of Burra (1999) and the Principals for Conserving Heritage Sites in China (2002), as well as based on the accumulated experience and the research that has been conducted by the Conservation Department and the Israel Antiquities Authority.
