Considering the number of endangered museums in Istanbul and the size of their collections, assessing and mitigating the earthquake risk is an immense task by any standard. This paper provides a status report on the current earthquake risk mitigation efforts taken by the museums in Turkey. It summarizes several projects that have been carried out over the past few years to protect museums and its collections from earthquake damage and defines future actions that would mitigate earthquake risks associated with museum buildings and their contents.

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One of the most basic functions of museums is conservation. In the historical process, the scope of the conservation work of museums has expanded and risk management in museums has came to the fore by the end of the 1980s. Risk management approach, which is applied in different sectors, is a study aiming to increase the loss reduction and coping capacity of institutions. The concept of risk management, which was used by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the first time in the field of cultural heritage after the World War II, is applied not only in museums, but also in historical environments, monuments, archaeological sites, libraries or archives with different approaches. In this regard, museums are prominent with their collections, and they acquire, conserve, exhibit, research and communicate in the service of society and its development. Besides collections, museum building, staff and visitors are also be considered in risk management work. In this context, risks to museums in international literature are classified as follows; physical forces, fire, water, criminals, incorrect relative humidity and temperature, light and UV, pollutants, pests and dissociation. In the 21st century, climate change, terrorist attacks and epidemics, which come to the fore all over the world, are also among the risks to museums. The risk management approach, developed by the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE), the Central Institute for Conservation in Belgrade (CIK), which work extensively in the field of risk management in museums, also forms the risk management steps. These steps are as follows; understanding the context, risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation, treat and monitoring. In this framework the aim of the article is to discuss the applicability of the risk management approach to museums. For this purpose, the main research question of this article is as follows; Is the risk management approach developed by CCI, ICCROM, RCE and CIK applicable to museums of different scales? The scope of the article is limited with international debates to risk management in museums. In the article, information about the definition of the concept of risk management; risk management work and approaches of the international institutions; risk to museums and risk management steps are given. In the conclusion part of the article, the applicability of the risk management approach in museums is evaluated and recommendations are presented. According to the findings, the risk management approach is applicable only in small-scale museums. This approach needs to be developed for medium and large-scale museums. In order to apply risk management approach in a more accurate way, there is a need to prepare risk management policies, disseminate the

The concept of risk management has started to be used in museums towards the end of 1980's and it has been suggested that an analytical approach could be used for risks in preventive conservation work. Risk management has started to be discussed as a separate area of study in museums in Turkey with 1999 earthquakes. In this context, the aim of the article is to examine the studies carried out on risk management in museums in Turkey and assess the current situation; to explain the risk management needs of museums based on this review and to make suggestions. In the article, risks about museum buildings and collections will be explained at first; information on the legal regulations, strategies, action plans, institutional initiatives and projects related to risk management in museums in Turkey will be given by examining the existing documents and the studies carried out in this field; risk management work both in state and private museums will be examined and suggestions will be made for the needs of museums related to risk management. In the article, laws, regulations and reports related to the subject were examined with the document analysis method, and the studies in the field were searched with the literature review. According to the research findings, the activities carried out on risk management in museums in Turkey are mostly limited with earthquake risk and preventive conservation. In the current legal regulations, there is a need to refer to the issue of risk management for museums. Risk management policies and plans should be developed for museums and holistic studies, which cover all risk factors, should be carried out accordingly. An institutional structuring, which can give service in the national scale on risk management issue for all moveable and immoveable cultural properties, museums, libraries and archives, is a need.