Restoration

Restoration vs. Conservation

Restoration and conservation are really two extremes of a preservation spectrum. Both have an important role to play. Which methodology you choose depends entirely on the goals you set. Today, museums have moved towards conservation. This choice is guided by the museum's mandate to steward their collections for future generations, and to educate the visitors about the history of their collections. This was not always the case.

If, for example, you have a broken toy from your childhood, and you want your child to be able to play with it, you might want to use sturdier materials than conservators might choose. You might also care less about the reversibility of the repairs. You might want the toy to just look great, the way that you remember it when you first got it. That is a perfectly reasonable goal. That’s when restoration is the better choice.

Remembering that restoration and conservation are two extremes of a preservation will help make wise choices that best meet the needs of your specific use case. We can help guide your decision based on careful listening.

The key objectives of Restoration:

To lengthen the life of the object in good condition by arresting decay, and stabilizing the material composition.
To make the object look as much as it did when it was first created. To make it strong enough to withstand the use for which it was designed, rather than being an object for display.

We offer:

Condition assessments.
Written and photographic documentation.
Treatment proposals with cost and time estimate.
Provide detailed professional written and visual documentation provided including pre, during and post conservation treatment that collectively provides an archival history of the artwork that can be used for insurance and sales purposes, as well as future conservation work.
Cleaning, structural stabilization, infills of material loss, color compensation for pigment loss, re-varnishing and more
Construction of archival housings for storage and display of fragile artifacts.
Packing for shipping.
Coordination of professional insured shipping.
Recommendations for maintenance.

To visit us, please email a request to Katya@RedDragonConservation.com