Experimental preservation

摘要

The words experimental and preservation have, until recently, been kept safely distant from each other. Experiment suggests the dangerous possibility of failure, something to avoid when working on valuable historical and cultural objects. To experiment on such objects is to risk altering the very qualities that make them valuable, and the failures are often publicly denounced. Art scholar James Beck criticised the team that restored Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1980 and 1994 for over-cleaning and forever damaging the celebrated frescos, and art historian John Eichardson charged conservators from the Museum of Modern Art in New York with adding varnishes that effectively destroyed Cubist paintings by Picasso, Juan Gris and others. In these famous cases, preservationists were accused of committing 'crimes' against culture, a serious indictment suggesting transgression of the laws and conventions that protect cultural heritage. The stakes are high for experimentation when even slightly altering the microscopic surface of an object can be tantamount to ruining it.