Preparing for a New Museum Building: Conservation Assessments Underway
Before highly specialized conservation teams remove an embedded object, they work to understand how it was put together—both by the original maker and by those who installed it here in the Museum generations ago. These teams study archival documents and core samples of the material to understand whether the cement that holds original fragments together is from the fifteenth century or the 1950s. In addition, they generate detailed condition reports on the works.
Another piece that many people might not be familiar with is a fourteenth-century French doorway that was covered up a decade ago because it did not fit into the curatorial narrative of the Medieval Gallery. Once the temporary wall was carefully removed, the conservators were able to examine and document this piece in preparation for its removal.
When a straightforward visual inspection is not sufficient to assess how an artwork was installed, it is necessary to make openings near the artwork. A borescope (a camera on a flexible tube) can be inserted to look behind the embedded works. This makes it possible to understand (or reverse engineer) how a work is held in place. These types of examinations are extremely important because they have revealed that some information in the archival documents discussing the installation of the pieces at Princeton was incorrect. Highly detailed accounts of previous installations are crucial for conservators and their colleagues, helping them to understand the method and approach used for installations in the past and to conduct safe removal of objects as needed in the future.
Now that the first phase (examination and documentation) is nearing completion, the Museum has started to plan the following stages: safe removal, storage, and finally conservation. We hope to share some glimpses of this process—and of the discoveries we are sure to make—in future issues of this magazine.
Bart Devolder
Chief Conservator