Services

Services Overview

What is...?

Pigments

The main services we provide are:

  • Preventive Conservation
  • Remedial Conservation
  • Restoration
  • Condition Assessment
  • Treatment Proposal
  • Analytical Services
  • Disaster recovery

We offer services ranging from simple cleaning to full restoration of damaged artworks.

Our conservators perform condition assessments and treatment proposals outlining specific needs, procedures and materials.

They are skilled in treating a full range of materials and techniques that include, but are not limited to, traditional and contemporary paintings, watercolors, pastels, drawings, art prints, documents, maps, decorative arts, archeological, ethnographic, historic artifacts and contemporary objects.

We also provide assessment to institutions in collections management, and conduct on-site condition reports and treatment proposals for large collections and oversized projects.

Conservation*

All measures and actions aimed at safeguarding tangible cultural heritage while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations. Conservation embraces preventive conservation, remedial conservation and restoration. All measures and actions should respect the significance and the physical properties of the cultural heritage item.

Preventive Conservation*

Preventive Conservation

All measures and actions aimed at avoiding and minimizing future deterioration or loss. They are carried out within the context or on the surroundings of an item, but more often a group of items, whatever their age and condition. These measures and actions are indirect – they do not interfere with the materials and structures of the items and they do not modify their appearance. Examples of preventive conservation are appropriate measures and actions for registration, storage, handling, packing and transportation, security, environmental management (light, humidity, pollution and pest control), emergency planning...

Remedial Conservation*

Objects conservation

All actions directly applied to an item or a group of items aimed at arresting current damaging processes or reinforcing their structure. These actions are only carried out when the items are in such a fragile condition or deteriorating at such a rate, that they could be lost in a relatively short time. These actions sometimes modify the appearance of the items. Examples of remedial conservation are disinfestation, desalination, deacidification, stabilization of corrosions, consolidation...

Restoration*

Paintings Conservation - During Cleaning

All actions directly applied to a single and stable item aimed at facilitating its appreciation, understanding and use. These actions are only carried out when the item has lost part of its significance or function through past alteration or deterioration. They are based on respect for the original material. Most often such actions modify the appearance of the item. Examples of restoration are cleaning, retouching, reassembling a broken structure, filling losses, varnishing...

*Terminology defined by the International Council of Museums - Committee for Conservation ICOM-CC