The Delta Plan for the preservation of cultural heritage in the Netherlands was developed after a 1988 publication by the general accounting office revealed the devastating state of 17 national museums in Holland. The ministry of welfare, health, and cultural affairs subsequently developed a document, Fighting decay, which was submitted to the lower house of the Dutch parliament in 1991. As a result, a nationwide survey of four aspects of collections management and conservation (documentation, preventive conservation, active conservation, and restoration) was undertaken in more than 800 museums. Priorities were established by classifying groups of objects into individual pieces into four categories, based upon their overall importance in a hierarchy of cultural-historical standards. Items from the first two categories received funding for active conservation, while the latter two categories were approached using preventive conservation measures.