The collection of the State Russian Museum totals over 420 thousand works of national fine art. The preservation, study and popularisation of these monuments of art is an honourable and extremely demanding duty of museum employees of different vocations. But among the basic museum professions, there is one that is more than others shrouded in mystery, hidden from the public space – the profession of a restorer.
The museum restorers, along with the conservators, have a special privilege – to hold art treasures in their hands, to move them inside and outside the museum; they have the exclusive right to carry out technological research of museum items. This process requires enormous responsibility, deep and versatile knowledge.
Time is inexorable. Under the impact of unfavourable external factors or due to improper usage before entering the museum funds, works of art may lose their former appearance, and sometimes they are on the brink of destruction. To eliminate the negative effects of time and ensure the longevity of each “storage unit” from the museum collection, a team of conservators of the Russian Museum works daily year after year.
For most people their work remains “invisible”, but it is largely due to them the current and future generations have and will have the chance to familiarize themselves with the cultural heritage of the past.
Without their constant, systematic and hard work it is impossible to imagine the current large-scale work related to exhibitions and collections of the Russian Museum. However, there were only a few exhibitions featuring the achievements and successes of the conservators. We have information that such an exhibition was under preparation in the pre-war years, but it did not take place for obvious reasons. Therefore, the first exhibition accompanied by a modest catalogue was organised only in 1977. The next one was held in 1998, but this time with a voluminous illustrated album-catalogue.
The current exhibition is a new attempt to invite our readers and visitors to plunge into the fascinating world of conservation of museum treasures to meet with the restorers of the Russian Museum, to see the results of their work as well as their faces. It is believed that four generations change over the course of a century – every 20–25 years. Thus, the new large-scale exhibition, as well as the previous ones in 1977 and 1998, and even the failed one of the early 1940s, form the image of several “restoration generations”, tell about the methods of research, ways, techniques and technologies of conservation of museum objects and collections that were used at different stages of its development.
The works displayed at the exhibition reveal the entire range of activities of our museum conservators, introduce us to the tasks they face and the results of many years of work, tell about the Museum Art Conservation Department, its history and development.
