DEPARTMENT HEADED BY DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR THE CONSERVATION AND STORAGE OF COLLECTIONS

Ever since its foundation in 1879, the National Museum in Krakow has been involved in conservation efforts. In one of its reports from the late nineteenth century we read that 'the Management Board of the Museum and the Conservator desire to secure and protect those [antiquities] which are in complete disrepair, and may be easily lost through destruction, with great detriment to scholarship, if they are not decisively saved by being placed in the Polish Museum (...) and subjected to very skilful restoration (...). Clean, remedy all minor damage, leave untouched what has been completely destroyed, renovate the picture frames – this is the rule followed by the Management Board in saving paintings.'

The rule applied by our predecessors towards the end of the nineteenth century is also our paramount principle today.

The conservation work at the National Museum in Krakow essentially consists in performing the maximum of procedures to secure and save an object from further destruction with the minimum of interference to its structure and original aesthetics. In practice, conservation may be broken down into two areas: remedial conservation, such as removal of dirt, re-adhesion, and filling in or retouching missing substance; and preventive conservation, which involves ensuring adequate storage and display conditions, monitoring and documenting the state of preservation of objects, providing specialist transport, etc.

Museum conservation also involves interdisciplinary work, cooperation and a research-based approach.

The department headed by the Chief Conservator encompasses 12 specialist conservation studios employing an experienced staff of 61 (32 conservators, 27 renovators, 1 physicist, 1 secretary).

Every year, conservation procedures are performed on some 2,500 museum objects. The current structure of the Chief Conservator’s Department and its team of specialists guarantee the complete safeguarding of all types of objects kept at the museum.