http://www.forummuzeulolteniei.ro
Organisers and financial support: Dolj county Council, Museum of Oltenia and ICOM Romania, with the Conservation Institute from Copenhagen, Turin University, Craiova University and ICPI Bucharest

MATCONS 2009 was an important conference organised in Romania in the fall of 2009, that brought together experts from different areas of the conservation of cultural heritage and conservation science, both from Romanian and foreign institutions.

The arrival, registration and accommodation of the participants were done on Monday, 14^th of September and a welcome dinner was offered by the organisers at the Park Hotel Restaurant in Craiova.

The conference was structured in morning and afternoon sessions, complemented by parallel events. Key lectures¹ were given by renowned experts and specialists invited from abroad, such as Jan Wouters and Annemnie Adriaens from Belgium, Luigi Campanella, Maria Perla Colombini, Piero Baglioni, Lorena Botti and Matteo Placido from Italy, René Larsen from Denmark, Marianne Odlyha from England, Manfred Schreiner from Austria, Andras Morgos from Japan, Jana Subic Prislan from Slovenia, Leonor Loureiro, Patricia Monteiro, Milene Gil and Irina Sandu from Portugal, etc.

The parallel sessions were held at the Oltenia Museum Lecture Hall on 15, 16 and 17 of September. After the opening session, an interesting National Exhibition of Movable Cultural Heritage Restoration was inaugurated in the newly restructured building of the Museum.

The conference registered 125 participants, from Romania and other countries, such as Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Ukraine, Slovenia and Japan.
The Romanian participants came from all the regions of the country, being professionals from the national network of the Ministry of Culture and Cults, together with researchers and teachers performing activities related to the conservation of Romanian cultural heritage. Besides the personnel from the Museum of Oltenia in Craiova, that brought a fundamental contribution to the organization of the conference, many specialists participated from museums all around the country.
Romanian research institutions and universities were also represented, such as the National Research Institute for Conservation and Restoration (INCCR), the National Research and Development Institute (ICPE-CA), the National Research and Development Institute of Leather and Textile - ICPI Division in Bucharest and the Art and Design University in Cluj Napoca.

The first session of lectures was introduced by Dr. Virgil Nitulescu, President of ICOM-Romania. His intervention focused on the actual situation of cultural heritage in Romania and on the educational system established for training conservators-restorers and conservation scientists. In this respect, the first invited speaker, Dr. Jan Wouters, recreated a panoramic view on the research in Europe in the field of heritage science and on the utility of conservation science for a better understanding and conservation of the cultural heritage.

Prof. Marianne Odlyha from Birkbeck College presented the results reported from several European Commission projects: “Improved Damage Assessment of Parchment” (IDAP), “Monitoring of Damage of Historic Tapestries” (MODHT), “Improved Protection of Paintings during Exhibition, Storage and Transit” (PROPAINT) and “Sensor System to Detect Harmful Environments for Pipe Organs” (SENSORGAN).

 

Prof. René Larsen illustrated some projects on the damage assessment of parchment in which a methodology for assessing the phenomena of physical deterioration and chemical degradation of parchment and leather fibers at microscopic level  was applied.

Dr. Elena Badea and Prof. Giuseppe della Gatta form the University of Turin (Italy) gave an interesting lecture on the physical chemistry for preservation and conservation of historical parchments, speaking of the use of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), IR, UV-Vis spectroscopies, environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and atomic force microcopy (AFM)  for the investigation of damages in archival parchments from the State archives of Turin, State Archives of Genova, State Archives of Florence, Historical Archives of Turin and National Archives of Stirling.
Prof. Manfred Schreiner presented a transportable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer developed and assembled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in order to allow in situ examination of works of art in museums, libraries and in archaeological excavation sites. Few case studies in which this instrument was applied were also reported.

Prof. Alessandro Vitale-Brovarone made a very interesting intervention about the history of the Turin’s university library and the attempt to restore parchments that were fire-damaged in 1904 during a project started at the end of the ‘90s and ended in 2004.

Prof. Piero Baglioni underlined the importance and the role of Colloid Science in the conservation of cultural heritage, exemplifying with few case studies this kind of applications: nano-magnetic sponges and oil-in-water nano-containers for cleaning of works of art, nano-particles for wood and mural paintings conservation, nano-technologies for paper and canvas deacidification, etc.

Prof. Maria Perla Colombini gave a very interesting lecture about the use of chromatographic mass spectrometric techniques (HPLC/MS, GC/MS, Py-GC/MS, DEMS) for organic materials characterization in wall paintings and for a better choice of the intervention system. The conservation project of the wall paintings in “Camposanto monumentale” of Pisa (Italy) was presented on this occasion.

Patricia Monteiro from the Faculty of Arts and Literature, University of Lisbon, spoke about the Portuguese treatises and their relevance to mural painting materials and techniques, considering also the difficulty in interpreting the information they contain.

Among the Romanian lecturers a special mention should be done for Dr. Nicoleta Zagura, UNESCO expert, who spoke about the efforts done in Romania through the cultural association she founded - Art and Heritage UNESCO Club - to increase the interest and education about the local and internationally recognized heritage, and for Dr. Ioan Opris, eminent art historian, who has drawn the attention to the emergency strategy to be adopted for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Modern Romania.

An interesting workshop on “Conservation and restoration of historical parchment and leather” was organized in the evenings of 15^th and 16^th, the participation being open to a certain number of conference participants and to the Romanian specialists in conservation of archives and library materials. The organizers of this workshop were the University of Turin (Prof. Giuseppe della Gatta), the School of Conservation of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (Dr. René Larsen) and the National Research and Development Institute for Textile and Leather in Bucharest (Dr. Luminita Albu). The workshop had the objective to provide and update the picture of the chemical and physical nature of parchment as well as its ageing and deterioration processes caused by the environment.

On 16 of September a final round table on the topic “Programs of research and training in the field of conservation  and restoration of cultural heritage” was organized at the University House in Craiova, and coordinated by Prof. Radu Constantinescu from Romania and Prof. Giuseppe della Gatta from Italy. The participants discussed the topics of interest for a potential network to be established at European level and about funding opportunities in Romania and abroad.

Poster session were also organized between the main sessions, giving place to debates, exchange of opinions and contact among the participants.

The next three days were dedicated to visiting places with cultural and historical significance from Romania, in a trip meant to illustrate the richness of the Romanian natural and cultural heritage in Transylvania region.

 

After the closing of the conference, a short visit at the Monastery Curtea de Arges, famous historic monument part of the Romanian built heritage took place, and a traditional lunch in a Pilgrims’ guest house near the monastery was offered in the afternoon of 17 of September. Afterwards, a short visit was paid to the Ethnographic Museum in Campulung Muscel and in the evening the participants were housed at the Panicel guest house near Rasnov city, in the green heart of the Transylvanian Mountains.
The day of 18 of September was dedicated to other visits to important monuments, such as the fortified church of Prejmer, Rasnov Fortress, Bran Castle and other museums and churches in Brasov county. The last day, the morning of 19 of September, was dedicated to the visit to Peles and Pelisor Palaces in Sinaia, former residences of the Royal family of Romania.

Last but not least we should mention the precious contribution given by the local organizing committee, formed by personnel from the Museum of Oltenia in Craiova (Tutu Barbulescu, Simona-Violeta Gheorghe, Rodica Florentina Opritescu, Alina Maria Garau, Anisoara Vatuiu, Leonard Ionescu, Cristina Stamate) whose dedication and hard work assured a fluent development of all the activities during the conference and the success of the wonderful trip to the important monuments in the Transylvanian Mountains, an emblematic region for the culture and history of Romania.

Notes:

¹ Foreign specialists brought interesting contributions to the conference, such as Dr. Jan Wouters ("Philosophies, instruments and networks aiming at a better understanding and conservation of cultural heritage"), Prof. René Larsen ("The IDAP Assessment Programme: Recent development and examples of its use in practice"), Dr. Annemie Adriaens ("The use of carboxylate coatings on lead as environmentally safe corrosion inhibition"), Prof. Piero Baglioni ("Conservation of cultural heritage: there is plenty of room for colloid science"), Prof. Maria Perla Colombini ("Saving wall paintings: organic materials characterization and restoration processes"), Prof. Marianne Odyhla ("Understanding microclimates in museums and their impact on heritage materials"), Prof. Manfred Schreiner ("Non-destructive analysis for artifacts of parchment and paper"), Dr. Laura Botti et al. ("Photographic printing processes: studies and analysis"), Dr. Patricia Monteiro ("Portuguese treatises and their relevance to mural paintings"), etc.  

Irina Crina Anca Sandu
Contact: irina.sandu@dq.fct.unl.pt

Irina Sandu (PhD) is an Assistant Researcher at the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) of the New University (UNL) in Lisbon, where she develops research for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage. She is the author / co-author of 12 monographs on conservation and more than 45 published papers, and was involved in 20 international research projects and scientific collaborations.

 

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