Restorations Winter 2015

1. PARIS.- Acquired by the State through public subscription in 1920, the painting The Painter's Studio (1854-1855) by Gustave Courbet is a universal masterpiece that is part of France's cultural heritage. After surviving more than a century of turbulent history, this 22 m² canvas is now in need of restoration. As this treasure belongs to everyone in France, the Musée d'Orsay is once again calling on the generosity of the public to help finance its restoration and to enable as many people as possible to participate in this project, beyond the traditional patrons.
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/74928/Mus-e-d-Orsay-announces-campaign-to-restore-Gustave-Courbet-s--The-Painter-s-Studio-#.VNUsrp3F9CY[/url]
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2. CAIRO (AFP).- An Egyptian conservation group said Friday it will sue the antiquities minister over a "botched" repair of the mask of King Tutankhamun that left a crust of dried glue on the

priceless relic. The golden funerary mask, seen Friday by AFP at the Egyptian Museum, showed the sticky aftermath of what appears to have been overzealous use of glue to fix the mask's beard in place. A museum official, who spoke anonymously to avoid repercussions, told AFP the beard had fallen of accidentally when the mask was removed from its case last year to repair the lighting. Museum head Mahmoud al-Helwagy denied that conservation workers had damaged the mask
More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/75984/Egypt-conservationists-to-sue-over--botched--Egyptian-Pharaoh-Tutankhamun-mask-repair#.VNUNCp3F9CY[/url]
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PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Syria’s renowned Ma’arra Mosaic Museum, significantly damaged and in danger of collapse as a result of the country’s long and ongoing civil war, has undergone emergency conservation and protection efforts by Syrian cultural heritage professionals and volunteers. The emergency project, first conceived during a Syrian cultural heritage emergency workshop in the summer of 2014, was a months’ long initiative of an international group of organizations: the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project (SHOSI), which is a consortium of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum; the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution; the Geospatial Technologies Project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Shawnee State University, The Day After—a Syrian NGO; and the U.S. Institute of Peace. The consortium planned the project, coordinated necessary governmental approvals in the war-torn country, and paid for the materials required to carry out the work with support from the J. M. Kaplan Fund. “We’ve seen how the invaluable cultural heritage of Syria has fallen prey to destruction by heavy artillery, targeted explosive attacks and looting as never before,” noted Dr. Salam Al-Kuntar, a Syrian archaeologist, a visiting research scholar at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University and a consulting scholar at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. “We all know that what a group of dedicated Syrians have done is a small but meaningful act and a courageous act, taking difficult steps during wartime to preserve Syrian history for future generations. Let us hope that this will be the first of many more concrete efforts of preservation.” Housing one of the most important collections of 3rd to 6th century Roman and Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East, the Ma’arra Mosaic Museum is located about 50 miles south of Aleppo. The Museum was an old caravanseri, or roadside inn, that was constructed in 1595 and refurbished as a museum in 1987.

More Information: http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=76916#.VP5R-S5uNc4[/url]
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3. PHILADELPHIA, PA.- During a recent paper conservation treatment, the Barnes Foundation discovered two unfinished sketches - one graphite and one watercolor - on the reverse sides of two watercolors by Cezanne, which depict the landscape of southern France: The Chaine de l'Etoile Mountains (BF650) and Trees (BF655), normally on view in room 20 of the Collection Gallery. The discovery marks the first time these sketches have been seen since at least the early 20th century, most likely prior to Dr. Albert Barnes's purchase of the works from Leo Stein in 1921.These sketches provide a glimpse behind Cezanne's artistic process and their discovery highlights the importance of conservation efforts and dedicated collection stewardship. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/76687/The-Barnes-Foundation-discovers-two-sketches-by-Paul-C-zanne-behind-watercolors#.VPo8s1PF9oE[/url]Copyright © artdaily.org


4. NEW YORK (AFP).- A Picasso painting, snatched more than a decade ago from a storeroom in Paris, has surfaced in New York and will be returned to the French government, US officials said Thursday. The century-old Cubist oil was smuggled into the United States last December from Belgium with a shipping label that described the contents as a handicraft holiday present worth 30
euros ($37). The painting, known as "La Coiffeuse" or "The Hairdresser," is estimated to be worth millions of dollars, US prosecutors said. It was intercepted by US customs and subsequently seized by Homeland Security Investigations. "A lost treasure has been found," said Loretta Lynch, attorney for the eastern district of New York. More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/76764/Stolen-Pablo-Picasso-painting--The-Hairdresser--worth-millions-discovered-in-New-York#.VPo9qFPF9oE[/url]
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5. PAKISTAN-In 2007, Taliban forces drilled into the face and torso of a 1,500-year-old Buddha relief in Jahanabad, Pakistan, injecting explosives. The dynamite in the shoulders of the 20-foot-tall carving failed to go off, but the charges in the face exploded, sheering off all but the lower left chin and jaw. This callous act of destruction was ideologically motivated: Muslim extremists view the Buddha as a false idol, and have been destroying and defacing artifacts and antiquities for centuries before the terrorist group came to power. More Information: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/810595/italian-experts-begin-reconstruction-of-pakistans-jahanabad


6. NEW YORK - It happened at 6 on a Sunday night. Adam — a strapping, 6-foot-3-inch marble sculpture by the Venetian Renaissance master Tullio Lombardo — fell to the ground on a patio at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, smashing into hundreds of pieces. “Nobody knew what had happened — it could have been foul play,” said Jack Soultanian, a conservator who was called to the museum that night in 2002. More Information:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/arts/design/recreating-adam-from-hundreds-of-fragments-after-the-fall.html?_r=1

7. PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Syria’s renowned Ma’arra Mosaic Museum, significantly damaged and in danger of collapse as a result of the country’s long and ongoing civil war, has undergone emergency conservation and protection efforts by Syrian cultural heritage professionals and volunteers. The emergency project, first conceived during a Syrian cultural heritage emergency workshop in the summer of 2014, was a months’ long initiative of an international group of organizations: the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project (SHOSI), which is a consortium of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum; the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution; the Geospatial Technologies Project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Shawnee State University, The Day After—a Syrian NGO; More Information: http://artdaily.com/news/76916/Emergency-preservation-activities-completed-at-Syria-s-Ma-arra-Mosaic-Museum#.VP9iOYF4r5I Copyright © artdaily.org