Conservation and restoration of cultural property

[5][6] Some consider the tradition of conservation of cultural heritage in Europe to have begun in 1565 with the restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, but more ancient examples include the work of Cassiodorus.

[7] The care of cultural heritage has a long history, one that was primarily aimed at fixing and mending objects for their continued use and aesthetic enjoyment.

[9] However, perhaps the first organized attempt to apply a theoretical framework to the conservation of cultural heritage came with the founding in the United Kingdom of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.

During the same period, a French movement with similar aims was being developed under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, an architect and theorist, famous for his restorations of medieval buildings.

[11] The early development of conservation of cultural heritage in any area of the world is usually linked to the creation of positions for chemists within museums.

Plenderleith's appointment may be said to have given birth to the conservation profession in the UK, although there had been craftsmen in many museums and in the commercial art world for generations.

[13] This department was created by the museum to address the deteriorating condition of objects in the collection, damages which were a result of their being stored in the London Underground tunnels during the First World War.

The creation of this department moved the focus for the development of conservation theory and practice from Germany to Britain, and made the latter a prime force in this fledgling field.

In the United States, the development of conservation of cultural heritage can be traced to the Fogg Art Museum, and Edward Waldo Forbes, its director from 1909 to 1944.

Art historians and theorists such as Cesare Brandi have also played a significant role in developing conservation science theory.

This concept is based in part on the pioneering work by Garry Thomson CBE, and his book Museum Environment, first published in 1978.

[16] Thomson was associated with the National Gallery in London; it was here that he established a set of guidelines or environmental controls for the best conditions in which objects could be stored and displayed within the museum environment.

The modern conservation laboratory uses equipment such as microscopes, spectrometers, and various x-ray regime instruments to better understand objects and their components.

The common understanding that "the care of an artifact should not come at the undue expense of the environment"[20] is generally well accepted within the community and is already contemplated in guidelines of diverse institutions related to the field.

[21][22][23] Many cultural works are sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and exposure to visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

It is an essential responsibility of members of the museum profession to create and maintain a protective environment for the collections in their care, whether in store, on display, or in transit.

Interventive actions are carried out for a variety of reasons, including aesthetic choices, stabilization needs for structural integrity, or cultural requirements for intangible continuity.

Examples of interventive treatments include the removal of discolored varnish from a painting, the application of wax to a sculpture, and the washing and rebinding of a book.

Ethical standards within the field require that the conservator fully justify interventive actions and carry out documentation before, during, and after the treatment.

[30][31] Sustainable conservation practices apply both to work within cultural institutions[29] (e.g. museums, art galleries, archives, libraries, research centres and historic sites) as well as to businesses and private studios.

These materials can include solvents, papers and boards, fabrics, adhesives and consolidants, plastics and foams, wood products, and many others.

Similarly, locally-made papers and boards may reduce inherent carbon miles but they may be made with pulp sourced from old growth forests.

Many conservators and cultural organisations have sought to reduce the energy costs associated with controlling indoor storage and display environments (temperature, relative humidity, air filtration, and lighting levels) as well as those associated with the transport of cultural heritage items for exhibitions and loans.

[39] Controlling the relative humidity of air helps to reduce hydrolysis reactions and minimises cracking, distortion and other physical changes in hygroscopic materials.

The original consultation paper made quite extensive reference to the importance of collections, the role of new technologies, and cultural property issues, but this appears to have been whittled away in the present document.

Concluding: When asked by the Commons Culture Media and Sport elect Committee CMS committee what he would like to see as a priority in the DCMS document arising from the 'Understanding the Future' consultation, Mr MacGregor responded 'I would like to see added there the need to conserve and research the collections, so that the collections can really play the role across the whole of the United Kingdom that they should.'

So would we.Further to this the ICON website summary report[45] lists the following specific recommendations: In November 2008, the UK-based think tank Demos published an influential pamphlet entitled It's a material world: caring for the public realm,[46] in which they argue for integrating the public directly into efforts to conserve material culture, particularly that which is in the public, their argument, as stated on page 16, demonstrates their belief that society can benefit from conservation as a paradigm as well as a profession: conservators provide a paradigm not just for fixing things when they are broken, but for a wider social ethos of care, where we individually and collectively take responsibility and action.Training in conservation of cultural heritage for many years took the form of an apprenticeship, whereby an apprentice slowly developed the necessary skills to undertake their job.