You ask: "How can professional ethics raise the standard of museums?"
A good starting point might be:
http://museum-security.org/denney
Why- because this is a really BAD example and one NOT be followed.
We can often learn more from the bad examples than from the good.
(No man's life is entirely wasted: he can always serve as a bad example. Anon)
Read this case history and then the ICOM code at:
http://www.icom.org/ethics.html
You will probably then be able to answer your question.

You may find the following sites of interest:
The Museum Security Network
http://museum-security.org
The Institute of Art and Law
http://www.pipemedia.net/ial

Antony Anderson
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From:   Tanasak Krabuanrat[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   04 December 1998 01:38
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Ethics

Dear all,
Could anyone give some advice, answers and ideas on 'How can professional ethics
raise the standard of museums?', in any aspects?
I can only learn from textbooks because I have no real-life museum experience, I
would love to hear from all the professionals like yourselves.  If you have some
examples, please share it with me, I will be most grateful.

Thank you very much,
fon