Museum

Budapest between the two World Wars was a vibrant, cultnred city with excellent theaters, concert halls, opera house, and museums. The city consisted of ten districts. The working-class industrial outskirts of Pest had their row-houses, whereas the middle-class inner city had quite imposing apartment buildings. The upper classes and aristocracy lived in their villas in the hills of Buda. 

A. Hofmann, Botanical Museum Eeaflets, Vol. 20, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1963, p. 194. 

One of the particulady challenging aspects of the work in a museum laboratory is the enormous variety of problems encountered. Every object examined is unique and for each the questions to be answered differ. Thus the museum laboratory most closely resembles, if anything, the forensic laboratory, and many of the methodologies employed are common (see Forensic chemistry). 

Optical Techniques. The most important tool in a museum laboratory is the low power stereomicroscope. This instmment, usually used at magnifications of 3—50 x, has enough depth of field to be useful for the study of surface phenomena on many types of objects without the need for removal and preparation of a sample. The information thus obtained can relate to toohnarks and manufacturing techniques, wear patterns, the stmcture of corrosion, artificial patination techniques, the stmcture of paint layers, or previous restorations. Any art object coming into a museum laboratory is examined by this microscope (see Microscopy Surface and interface analysis). 

The first question about a stone object is often which stone was used. Indeed, museums have many labels that carry an erroneous identification. X-ray diffraction provides a relatively easy answer for such questions of identification. 

Organic Materials. Museums contain large numbers of objects made out of components from plants or animals, including wood, eg, furniture, carvings fibers eg, textiles (qv), paper (qv) fmits, skin, eg, leather (qv), parchment bone ivory etc. Several of these materials have properties related to their preservation. 

Modem synthetic polymers are the subject of increasing research by conservation scientists. Not only does their frequent use in conservation treatments require a better understanding of their long term stabiUty, but also many objects, including those in collections of contemporary art and in history and technology museums, are made out of these new materials. 

Biodeterioration. For objects made out of organic materials, mold and insect attack are a principal cause of damage. Microbiological organisms can also be responsible for serious deterioration of outdoor stone. Museums, especially storage areas, are quite conducive to providing the conditions in which infestations can occur. Objects are stored in close proximity, and left untouched for prolonged periods, often with Htde if any ak movement. 

Pollutants. The problems posed by ak pollutants are very serious. Within a museum, measures can be taken to remove harmful substances as efficiently as possible by means of the installation of appropriate filter systems in the ventilation equipment. Proposed specification values for museum climate-control systems requke filtering systems having an efficiency for particulate removal in the dioctyl phthalate test of 60—80%. Systems must be able to limit both sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide concentrations <10 /ig/m, and ozone to <2 /ig/m. ... 

Physical Safety. Preventive conservation also involves ensuring the physical safety of objects (176). Objects should be guarded against acts of vandaHsm or damage inflicted by touching them. In many museums, greasy spots on sculpture can be seen, a result of repeated contact with bare hands. 

For different types of collections, this balance is differently defined. For example paper conservation treatments commonly undertaken in the museum conservation laboratory would be impractical in a Hbrary archive having a far greater collection size. The use of treatments for mass paper quantities would be unacceptable in the art museum. Documents in archives and books in Hbraries serve a different goal from art objects in a museum. Their use value Hes primarily in their information rather than in an intrinsic esthetic value. Whereas optimal preservation of that information value requires preservation of the object itself, a copy or even a completely different format could serve the same purpose. 

W. J. Young, ed., applications of Science in Examination of Works of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 1959. 

M. Jones, ed.. Fake The Art of Deception, British Museum PubHcations, London, 1989. 

D. von Bothmer and J. V. Noble, M Inquiry into theForgery of the Etruscan Terracotta Warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, papers no. 11, The MetropoHtan Museum of Art, New York, 1961. 

S. G. E. Bowman, ed.. Science and the Fast, British Museum Press, London, 1991. 

Marble. Art Historical and Scientific Perspectives on Ancient Sculpture, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MaHbu, Calif., 1990. 

J. S. Mills and R. White, The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, Butterworths, London, 1987. 

E. DoUoff and R. Perkinson, How to Carefor Works of Art on Paper, 3rd ed.. Museum of Pine Arts, Boston, Mass., 1979. 

N. S. Brommelle and A. E. A. Werner, eds.. Deterioration and Treatment of Wood. Problems of Conservation in Museums, Editions EyroUes, Paris, 1969. 

W. A. Oddy, ed.. Problems in the Conservation of Waterlogged Wood, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, 1975. 

L. A. Zycherman and J. R. Richard, M Guide to Museum Pest Control, Poundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and the Association of Systematic CoUections, Washington, D.C., 1988. 

Display holography is by far the most familiar and weU-developed holographic appHcation to date with several museums dedicated to holographic art. 

Fig-1 1 The world s oldest metal pipe from the temple of King Sahu-re (photo Staat-liches Museum, Berlin). 

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