 The Barentsburg Pomor Museum was closed to the public during the summer of 2008, and conditions were said to be poor.In order to protect them from degradation, Norway's Governor of Svalbard demanded that Pomor historical objects kept in the museum be handed over for preservation in Longyearbyen.This was done citing the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act, because the Svalbard Treaty of 1920 – while granting full economic access to signatory states – does not provide suzerainty in questions of cultural heritage.