Conservation Treatments
Conservation encompasses two fundamentals: to make the Victoria and Albert Museum's collections last as long as possible and to assist our understanding and enjoyment of them.
All objects and materials change with time. This may be sudden, as in the breaking of a glass vase, or it may be gradual such as in the fading of tapestries. Some change, which occurs before the objects become part of the Museum's collections, may be deliberate, such as the cutting down of a costume for another wearer, or may be unintentional, for example, the darkening of picture varnish. However, age can confer desirable qualities such as patina on metals and ivory, or may add significance to certain groups of artefact, for example, evidence of historical use. Conservators, with curators, historians and other specialists, work together to understand and identify the significance of changes.
Conservators and conservation scientists try to understand how change occurs and how it can be slowed down or its effects reversed. Conservation treatment involves change for the object and conservators have to consider the long term implications of their actions. The departmental Ethics Checklist helps to inform the decison making process.
Protecting collections from harm while they are on display in the V&A or travelling around the world on loan, and even while they are kept and studied in stores, requires conservators and scientists to consider not only the objects themselves, but also their environment. This includes the air that surrounds them, the light that falls on them and the materials near them. The people who use the collections cannot be ignored either, as their activities, and even just their presence, affects the objects. This part of the work of the department is usually referred to as preventive conservation.
All collections are at risk from insects and pests and may harbour risks for other parts of the collection. At particular risk are organic materials such as textiles, costumes, furniture, ephemera and ethnographic collections. The Museum's Insect Pest Managementprogramme is explained further here.
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