Keeping art alive

Priceless artefacts in museums have to be cleaned and looked after by the Artefact Restoration Laboratories to last for many years.

February 20, 2012 07:33 pm | Updated 07:38 pm IST

Perfect preservation: Scientific restoration of a painting Photo: K.R. Deepak

Perfect preservation: Scientific restoration of a painting Photo: K.R. Deepak

Visiting a museum tops the list for those who love art and history. For it is here that artefacts are displayed and made available for public viewing through exhibits. Over time artefacts get damaged due to various factors. Some museums have Artefact Restoration Laboratories, where specialised people work on the restoration of these priceless pieces of art.

Preserved

The Salarjung Museum is one of the few museums in India which has a well equipped laboratory for the restoration of artefacts. “Many art pieces are still in the store and will be put on display only after thorough inspection and cleaning. Restoration is carried out before the art work is exhibited,”says Mr Srinivas Murthy, an artist, who restores paintings at the Salarjung Museum.

At the restoration laboratory, the specialists clean the artefact and do a thorough assessment. Pages of damaged manuscripts are laminated and the entire manuscript is rebound, giving it a new look. Damaged paintings are touched up. Torn and moth-eaten cloth paintings are darned aesthetically, giving a new life to these wall hangings.

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