Since the early 1970s, archaeologists, conservators, and curators have turned to published guidance for methods of safeguarding archaeological metals in the short and long term. Much of this has appeared in editions of the ubiquitous handbook First Aid for Finds, the most recent of which dates to 1998. A central message across all guidance has been to dry metals post-excavation and prevent their corrosion

The Altar of Skulls is located in the Historical Centre of Mexico City, part of the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan built by the Aztecs. This Archaeological site is considered by UNESCO as Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Altar of Skulls contains a core of igneous stones, with walls made of rock wedges carved in the shape of skulls, covered with lime mortars, with remains of red and yellow polychromy

This study aimed to investigate the corrosion of a group of historic silver–copper alloy coins and their conservation treatment on defined parameters by potentiostatic methods. Basic copper carbonates and silver chloride were identified on the surface of the coins by a combination of scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses

Understanding the use of colorant materials throughout history is now the objective of multiple studies centered on the identification and characterization of these materials. The main objective of this study is to increase knowledge of the degradation pathways of indigo blue dye (Indigofera tinctoria) and the detection of degradation products. This will enable the identification of the dye on historical

This paper describes a cleaning method for removing ingrained carbonaceous dirt from lime-based wall paintings by utilizing hydrogels in combination with aqueous cleaning liquids. Nanorestore Gel® Peggy 6 has a number of advantages over traditional cleaning methods, and it is capable of holding large amounts of liquid, but it limits liquid penetration into the substrate. Cleaning action occurs only

This paper describes attempts to replicate medieval plaster using hot-mixing, where quicklime, aggregate, and water are combined in a single exothermic process. The experimental study aimed to reproduce the structural characteristics of medieval plaster while making sample materials for conservation trials, rendering them more relevant and comparable with the medieval materials on which treatments

This paper presents the findings of an international online survey designed to better understand current practices and knowledge surrounding cellulose-based films showing signs of vinegar syndrome and naphthalene syndrome in order to determine gaps and potential areas for future research among organisations holding film collections. The findings of this survey suggest that confusion over aspects of

ABSTRACT This paper proposes the use of simulation modelling to explore the effect of conservation strategies on the preservation of paper collections. Agent-based simulation was chosen as the simulation approach in order to capture the individual characteristics of the collections, their size, and the values of pH and degree of polymerisation (DP) for individual items. This approach enabled the simulation

Since its completion in 1904, the Hill House in Helensburgh (Scotland) designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh has suffered from the effects of moisture penetration. Various owners have attempted to remedy the problem with limited success. In 2019 the current owner, the National Trust for Scotland, took the bold step to cover the entire building in a contemporary structure, the Big Box, in order to arrest

This paper discusses the conservation and preservation of the twenty-fifth dynasty royal painted tombs of Queen Qalhata and her son King Tanwetamani in the ancient kingdom of Kush at El-Kurru, Sudan. Part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region, Sudan’, the tombs fall under the International Kurru Archaeology Project. This collaboration with archaeologists

Fifty-eight Swedish silver coins from the last five centuries were analysed by SEM-EDX and other techniques. All coins, even those from the twentieth century, showed a surface enrichment of silver. Accordingly, a SEM-EDX analysis of a silver coin gives an erroneous result for the bulk composition. On the other hand, a silver coin assiduously polished with a rough emery cloth usually gave the same silver

Wall paintings are physically indivisible from the built heritage, which makes their conservation difficult. Conservation measures focus on stabilising paintings and slowing deterioration, while preserving significance and authenticity. Achieving these aims is complicated. The altered states in which paintings usually survive – due to events, exposure, neglect, misguided restorations, and other causes

The aim of the present work was to test the applicability of the spectrophotometric method for the determination of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 using bismuth subnitrate (BiONO3) to monitor the content of PEG in impregnated archaeological wood. Absorption spectra were collected in the visible light (VIS) range from 400 to 600 nm. The weight of the wood samples tested ranged from 50 to 120 mg. The

In 2011 Historic Royal Palaces began to investigate protective measures for historic tapestries on open display at Hampton Court Palace. The environmental exposure conditions for each tapestry were analysed and mapped to evaluate risk. An innovative method to reduce illuminance and direct sunlight on the historic tapestries using ‘smart’ technologies was developed. The design, testing and implementation

Collections care in temperate zones of the world, including Scotland, is generally well served by a system of heating control known as conservation heating or humidistat-controlled heating. This system adjusts temperature in a building in order to maintain relative humidity at desired levels. An alternative control method is through the use of dehumidification, although airtightness of the building

(2020). Creating a Sustainable Museum Within Historic Buildings and a Functioning Almshouse: The Charterhouse Museum. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

Many buildings of the 1940s to the 1970s are decorated with monumental façade artworks. These murals, mosaics, and integral sculptural reliefs sometimes gain in cultural value even if the buildings on which they are installed do not. When a building that supports an artwork is designated for demolition, artworks whose scale and installation never accounted for future repositioning are endangered. Frequently

(2020). Conservation and the Rural Church: The State of Play and the Challenges Ahead. Lessons from the Diocese of Gloucester, UK. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

The activities of the UK Parliamentary Archives bridge the space between built heritage and in situ collection management. They are housed in the Palace of Westminster, London, designed and built after the fire of 1834. Whilst primarily looking at the work of conservators, archivists and curators related to two specific projects, we acknowledge and describe our collaborations and compromises in a building

Applicable to nations around the world with large corpuses of rock art and disenfranchised or disempowered First Nations peoples, efforts are being implemented at locations across Northern Australia to change this power imbalance. As the Traditional Owners of Country and the custodians of an ongoing living culture, interconnected across time and space, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

This paper presents a method and protocol for the study of varnishes and be protective layers applied throughout history to graphic works. The study is based on the characteristics and behaviour of varnishes when facing different types of deterioration. The methodology is founded on a series of physical–chemical tests that identify the characteristics of a varnish when applied to paper (surface and

(2020). Post-excavation Conservation of the Mausoleum of the Dingtao Queen, Western Han Dynasty. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

Different environmental control types (background heating, electric and wet humidistatic heating, dehumidification and air-conditioning) have been assessed in more than 60 historic buildings. Performance in terms of climate and corrosion rates achieved, and energy consumption, were measured. An intensive series of trials compared dehumidification and humidistatic heating for stores. Damage to the wall

(2020). Effective Communication and Team Working in the Conservation of Private Buildings: The Rediscovery of Original Surfaces in the Palazzo Berlendis, Venice. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

In the last 20 years strong permanent magnets have frequently been used in the field of conservation and preservation of works of art. Such magnets provide temporary mechanical pressure, making them a convenient way to frame and/or present a piece for exhibition. This is a benefit because in these magnets high magnetic energy is stored in a small mass. Literature dedicated to this topic focuses on

This paper discusses integration of twenty-first-century direct-exchange geothermal technology with nineteenth-century heat supply infrastructure to provide climate control at The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. In 1892, Cornelius Vanderbilt II built an 11,600 m2 Italian Renaissance style summer residence equipped with the most modern domestic technology available. This house retains original

(2020). Understanding the Risk of Visitor Developments and Operational Changes to Built Heritage Fabric. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

(2020). A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to the Conservation of Manchester Town Hall. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

The Cathedral of Saint Lawrence in Lugano, Switzerland is an important religious and historical site that contains both immovable and moveable works of art. Although the structure itself has changed, it retains many important wall paintings. In 1910, the cathedral underwent comprehensive restoration under the direction of Augusto Guidini and the painter Ernesto Rusca, including executing new paintings

In the past, woodborers like A. punctatum and X. rufovillosum were widespread in historic furniture, households, and building structures, but as they need a high wood moisture content and central heating and climate control have become common today their occurrence is rare and often limited to open-air museums, rural museums, and historic buildings. In this paper, we report on the spread and transportation

This paper describes an investigation into the causes of specific degradation phenomena in three oil paintings from the 1960s by eminent Indigenous Canadian painter Rita Letendre. A comprehensive technical study of the paintings was undertaken using a combination of SEM-EDS, FTIR spectroscopy, Py-GC-MS, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, and polarised light microscopy to determine pigments, fillers, additives

Taliesin is the home and working facility that Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) began for himself in 1911 and which remained a work in progress for the rest of his life. Integral to its esthetic is the display of the Japanese and Chinese paintings of which Wright was a discriminating collector; these were mounted specifically to fit locations in the important public rooms. Their conservation was framed

Uluru, once known as Ayer’s Rock, is one of Australia’s most well-known natural phenomena. A World Heritage Site, it is listed for its cultural and natural heritage attributes. Until recently it had been visited by more than 300,000 people annually, many of whom climbed the rock, despite the expressly stated wishes of the traditional owners that they should not. In November 2017, the Uluru Kata Tjuta

Many conservators are reluctant to use silver dips based on thiourea because of reported problems such as yellowing and retarnishing as well as brown spots on daguerreotypes. Silver dips are reported to leave a surface layer, which is blamed for these problems. Here, acid-thiourea silver dips (1 M thiourea, pH 2) were studied with samples of pure silver to see whether extensive rinsing can remove the

(2020). From Forgotten Remnant to a New Beginning: Planning the Relocation of the Zadkine Relief from the Cinema Metropole, Brussels. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

The central role of the Church of England is mission and ministry and the strategy of the Church’s Cathedrals and Church Buildings Division is to support buildings for mission. Over three quarters of the Church of England’s 15,700 church buildings are listed, although the Church is not a heritage organisation. Discussions on conservation of church heritage focus on the buildings: conservation of historic

(2020). Integrating the Classroom with the Community: Collaboration with the Hewitt Mansion in Buffalo, New York. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

Clinical multislice X-ray computed tomography (MCST) was performed on a seventeenth-century panel painting from the collection of the National Academy of San Luca Gallery in Rome. The use of MSCT allowed us to detect the numerous characteristics of the wood used, the panel construction, and its condition, leading to a complete preliminary interpretation of its structural characteristics.

The restoration of the Roman building of the third-fourth century CE called Minerva Medica, in Rome, highlighted a problem concerning the choice of the color of the bricks for integration. Current conservation practice in Italy favours a restoration that as much as possible is consistent with the original but leaves some visible differences to a careful observer. Color measurement is usually performed

Thirty-eight thangkas have been displayed in the Buddha Room in the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxin dian) of the Palace Museum, Beijing, for more than 270 years. A huge and systematic project is presented including the conservation of thangkas, the environmental control of the historic buildings, as well as research into possibilities for display and storage. The methods and materials used to conserve

(2020). The Preservation of Façades for Pre-Hispanic and Historical Buildings in Mexico. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

(2020). Integrated Strategy to Assess Conservation Treatments on Sandstone. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

The discovery of blue copper salts prompted scientific studies of a collection of ‘silver’ white metal jewellery from Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia dated from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. Surface examination along with compositional and microstructural analysis was carried out to explore the alloys and manufacturing techniques of the artefacts. A total of

One of the most telling artifacts in the 9/11 Memorial Museum is the slurry wall, a vestige in situ of the pre-9/11 World Trade Center complex, preserved under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This subterranean 20 meter long section of the perimeter wall that surrounded 4.5 hectares of the Trade Center site was never meant to be seen or tell its story. Made of reinforced concrete

(2020). The Recreation of Historic Ceiling Tiles for Buxton Crescent. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

The Centre Block in Ottawa is a classified federal heritage building housing Canada's parliament. Nearly a century after its formal opening, it closed in 2019 for a decade-long rehabilitation. This neo-gothic building will undergo complete structural, engineering, seismic and security upgrades while preserving its heritage character and materials. The lessons learned during the rehabilitation of other

This paper evaluates the pros and cons of housing collections in historic buildings as opposed to creating new, purpose-built buildings. Previous studies have compared the costs of adapting existing buildings to those of new construction, showing the former to be better value for money. Those findings will be re-examined in the light of BS EN 16893, passive standards and renewable energy developments;

Photo-oxidation has been identified as a main cause of the light-induced color and brightness changes to which historical objects in exhibitions may be subject. Therefore, a possible approach to reduce the risk of light damage is the reduction of the oxygen content in the atmosphere surrounding these objects. In order to estimate the efficiency of this approach, this work presents a comparison of the

The Burrell Collection, which opened in 1984, was built to display and house the fine and decorative art collection given to the City of Glasgow by the ship owner, politician and philanthropist Sir William Burrell. The building design was chosen via a competition in the 1970s, with the structure fully listed in the early twenty-first century. It is one of the best examples of late twentieth-century

This paper reports on an investigation into slanted support, an increasingly common method of displaying tapestries in mainland Europe. Two factors contribute to the efficacy of slanted supports for tapestry: the angle of display and the degree of friction between the tapestry and the support. Initial analysis demonstrated that a small degree of slope, of 5°, has only marginal impact on reducing the

An extreme environment poses challenges, and forces one to implement solutions that require mixing state-of-the-art techniques with local knowledge and resources, to achieve results that are appropriate, effective, and sustainable in the long term. This is the case at Dangeil, Sudan, site of a first-century CE Kushite temple and cemeteries. Archaeological excavation and conservation were initiated

The design and evaluation of site-specific injection grouts for the stabilisation of delaminated wall paintings is often challenging to perform in situ, due to constraints such as time, availability of materials and reliable testing procedures. In this research, a rigorous design and testing methodology, including the development of a new adhesion test, was adopted on-site for the development of injection

(2020). A Reflection on Current Conservation Policy through the Adaptive Re-use of Haw Par Mansion and Conservation of Three Tiger Balm Garden Sculptures. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

In the Central European context the imitation of natural stone is called stucco marble or scagliola. During its manufacture, the mixture of gypsum, animal glue and pigments produces a marble-like structure and after several sanding and polishing processes it attains a glossy surface. Scagliola plays a significant role in the history of interior design in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in central

This paper presents the results of a full-scale experiment where a newly-developed thermal insulating mortar was applied to four vaults in the medieval church in Annisse, Denmark. The intervention aimed to stabilize climatic conditions, mitigating potentially harmful processes that often contribute to deterioration and decay. Vaults are exposed to soiling by fine particulate matter, discolouration

Many countries in the Mediterranean region face the enormous challenge of conserving detached mosaics abandoned in storage for decades without any re-backing support and with only their facings to hold the tesserae in place. As part of the MOSAIKON initiative's technician training courses, sustainable techniques have been developed to address this problem, providing national authorities with the skills

The earthquakes in 2015 brought Nepal to the centre of attention of the global heritage community. At the Patan Durbar Square and Royal Palace – part of the Kathmandu Valley’s UNESCO World Heritage Site – considerable progress has been made in the conservation and reconstruction of damaged, built cultural heritage, mainly made of brick, timber and stone. Collaborative work between the Institute of

(2020). Casa de Pueblo, Spain: Bridging the Divide Between Built and Moveable Heritage Conservators Through Social Media. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.

This paper presents the conservation treatment of original 1960s polyester design elements in the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, which was performed as an integral part of a major restoration of the landmark building. It is shown how the structural and usage-related context of the design influenced the decision-making process that led to the conservation treatment. This was relevant both for the choice

(2020). And So To Bed: Inside or Outside the Box?. Studies in Conservation. Ahead of Print.