Heritage Board director: Estonia's cultural memory cannot wait for better times

Muinsuskaitseamet director Marilin Mihkelson argues in an opinion piece that the question of heritage storage facilities is not a technical one but a fundamental choice about what Estonia values as its collective memory. She warns that cultural heritage deteriorates while waiting for ideal conditions. The piece calls for urgent action on storage infrastructure for Estonia's museums, archives, and collections.

The debate around heritage storage facilities might sound dry at first glance — square metres, climate requirements, shelving systems, digitisation plans, relocation schedules. But Marilin Mihkelson, director general of the Estonian Heritage Board (Muinsuskaitseamet), argues in a new opinion piece that the real question is far simpler and more uncomfortable: where and how do we store what we consider to be Estonia's collective memory?

More than a logistics problem

Mihkelson's central point is that framing heritage preservation as a logistics or budget issue misses the deeper stakes. Every year of delay means physical deterioration of irreplaceable objects — manuscripts, artefacts, photographs, and artworks that cannot be recreated once lost. The notion of waiting for better economic conditions, she suggests, is itself a form of loss.

Estonia's memory institutions — museums, archives, libraries, and collections — face a chronic shortage of adequate storage space that meets modern conservation standards. Many items are held in conditions that fall short of what is needed to ensure their long-term survival, a situation that has persisted through successive budget cycles.

A question of national priorities

For Mihkelson, the issue ultimately comes down to what a society chooses to protect and fund. Cultural heritage does not lobby for itself, does not generate headlines when it quietly degrades, and rarely triggers political urgency until something is already gone. Her appeal is for Estonia to treat the safeguarding of its material past not as a discretionary expense but as a core public responsibility.

The opinion piece comes at a time when Estonia is navigating significant budget pressures, making the argument for heritage investment a harder sell — but, Mihkelson contends, precisely the moment when clarity of values matters most.