University collections and museums face a challenge when it comes to protecting and promoting the cultural heritage of academic research and education. To give those collections a better visibility, the International Committee for university museums and collections (UMAC) was founded in 2000 (http://umac.icom.museum/). But each collection has its own history and its own needs and faces particular challenges. This paper presents the case of the plaster casts of the University of Geneva, a collection that has its origins in the 18th century. After a short revival in the nineteen seventies, due to the personal commitment of José Dörig, Professor of Classical Archaeology, the collection began falling back into neglect. Since 2009, under the direction of the speaker, the collection of plaster casts has taken a new turn, with the organization of several temporary exhibitions, numerous educational and public activities, and the adoption of new approaches to communication and research. Subsequently, the collection has attracted not only a much larger interest among the public, but also the support of the University administration, leading to its installation in a new, much larger, and easily accessible space. At the same time, several problems still remain to be resolved in the coming years, in order to preserve this important and too often neglected part of our scientific and artistic patrimony for the future.