Forgotten Treasures – From Oblivion into Visible Storages – The Care of Paintings Collections within the Paintings Conservation Programme at the Institute of Conservation, University of Applied Arts Vienna

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Despite their different geographical location the monastic paintings collections addressed in the lecture have a lot in common. Collected with devotion, they were (partly) neglected over the years and rediscovered by accident. Lost inventories and inappropriate storage conditions led to losses and damages of the objects. Within the last 8 years the Institute of Conservation took measures to rescue those forgotten treasures from oblivion and bring them back into public awareness. The three case studies presented give an insight into those measures from creating (temporary) inventories over condition reports to the practical conservation treatment, which were carried out by the Institute’s staff and students. The speaker will present various possibilities of surface cleaning and safety measures as well as the important role of the ornate frames and how to adapt them for safer hanging. In addition, suitable materials for those measures will be discussed. Collection care further includes the improvement of storage facilities and interim storages. The lecture will report from the hands-on experience gained from the case studies, give advice on dealing with pests and mold infested objects. Today all three paintings collections also share that they are safely stored in visible storages. Through opening up to the public the collections gained renewed appreciation and significance.

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International Summer School 2020 - Remote Lecture series ‘Sustaining Cultural Heritage through Preventive Conservation and Collection Care’

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