Monumental buildings used as museums: protection or danger for the artifacts?

Many art collections are hosted in monumental buildings with high artistic and historical value. While the esthetic of the buildings provides an enhancement to the artifacts, their structural performance could be detrimental in extreme hazardous events, such as windstorms, floods, fire or earthquakes. The buildings hosting the artifacts, which are supposed to protect against all possible dangers, may become the main source of hazard for their precious and priceless contents. Several researchers recognize the interactive effects and recommend that the safety of the artifacts should be evaluated jointly with the buildings where they are exhibited. Special attention should be paid to check structural behavior of monumental buildings along with their sensitive contents; a selection of procedures and response parameters such as those describing filtering the base motions should be defined and developed to assure the required safety to the content. Moreover, solutions may be thought to remedy deficiencies, by uncoupling the artifacts from the damaging filtered motion. Isolation of artifacts and of host monumental buildings may turn to be cost effective in providing a reduced risk.