The restoration of ancient objects is the daily occupation of mundial museums since always. But how to restore? This question need for each object the creation of a council which points out general directions for the restoration, which must follow international norms.
The restoration of ancient objects is the daily occupation of mundial museums since always. But how to restore? This question need for each object the creation of a council which points out general directions for the restoration, which must follow international norms.
The orientation for the restoration of an ancient object must be given by specialists, not only in the domain of preservation, but also in other domains, according to the object. For a broken bronze drum, gathered in an excavation, the archaeologist must know the reason of this fracture. The Swede O. Janse has shown that many objects from the time of Dong Son, 3000 years ago, have been broken for religious reasons. When people bury a dead with objects (among which many are bronze drums), they must break these accompanying objects in order to cut off relations between the world of dead people and that of the living ones. Thus, these “lovely” fractures are messages on the spiritual life, the believes, a reflection of the immaterial culture, which one musr not restore nor repair as we want. The private collectors, and even certain museums, not knowing all the informations, begin to restore at random provided they obtain an intact ancient object, pleasant at sight.
One must restick broken ancient objects by a normalised glue, varying according to the materials. The collectors restick with the glue “elephant”, 502, etc, for any object. This presents the danger of damaging intact parts of the object when the glue is too strong.
Most collectors use plastic matters mixed with a kind of glue to repair broken parts of an object, so that chemical substances may attack the ancient object, that intact parts may be broken or splitted as consequence of differences in thermic dilatation between the intact parts and the restored parts under the action of the environment, the temperature or the climate. Such “dressing of wounds” of the ancient object are not cheap but cause to the ancient object too much damage. In museums, to restore or repair ancient objects, one must not use materials harder than that of the very object and above all, one must not use harmful chemical substances. The restoration and repair use only plaster and certain other additive matters, according to norms and formulae.
In the future, when the country in engaged in integration, when the preservation and restoration of cultural patrimonies must follow international norms, all the ancient objects arbitrarily restored so far must return to the normal, international, scientific manner. We will have to pay for the past infantile manner of proceeding, which cause to the ancient object an additive damage.
I have visited a french center of preservation where scientific people are making up for errors committed by their colleagues of the last century who did not follow scientific norms in restoration. The price of giving back the initial painting to an earth statue 50cm high is 100,000 USD, the statue having suffered many repaintings with paints which are not of the time of the statue.
Our task is to recommand to collectors to do so that they will not have to pay for thoughtless acts.
Pham Quoc Quan