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69
Forbes Prize Lecture
The Forbes Prize was established in 1958 to honour Edward Waldo Forbes, director emeritus of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard
University, and the first honorary fellow of IIC. It is awarded by the Council for conspicuous services to conservation and the
recipient customarily delivers a lecture during the Institutes international congress. The recipient of the Forbes Prize 2006 was
Gal de Guichen.
Gal de Guichen began his career as
the engineer in charge of the prehistoric
cave at Lascaux. I n 1969 he j oi ned
ICCROM, where he remai ned for hi s
enti re career, l aunchi ng three maj or
programmes: in preventive conservation,
on the development of African museums
and for greater publ i c i nvol vement i n
conservation. He continues to be active
i n the fi el d of conservati on, l ecturi ng
and participating in many training pro-
grammes.
A COMMON DEFINITION
OF CONSERVATION AND
RESTORATION: AGREE OR
DISAGREE, BUT WE ARE
LIVING IN THE TOWER OF
BABEL
At the beginning of a long and exciting
week, you are very courageous to attend
this lecture as, by tradition, the title of the
Forbes Prize lecture is not announced. It
will not be a simple slide lecture, but an
interactive lecture and for this reason you
have a green card and a red card which
you will be requested to use in order to
cast votes and register your opinions.
The story begins in March 2006 when
I returned to Rome to find a message
on my answering machine from David
Leigh, secretary general of IIC, who, in
mysterious tones, asked me to call him
back. My first thought was, I have not
paid my annual subscription to IIC, and
as you know, no subscription means no
Studies in Conservation a disaster. So
to help me understand, use your red
and green cards to indicate your answer
to thi s questi on: Who here recei ves
Studi es i n Conser vati on? I see the
answer is around 90%, which means that
10% have not paid their subscriptions.
Now, may I ask a second questi on:
Who reads Studies in Conservation?
I see the room is turning gently from
green to red and that we have identified
the i ntel l ectual s. I n order to i denti fy
possible future Nobel Prize winners, I am
tempted to ask a third question: Who
understands Studies in Conservation?
but perhaps not.
Eventually, I called David Leigh who
told me that the Council had decided to
ask me to give this Forbes Prize lecture.
I felt very honoured, as the first Prize
was conferred on Dr Plenderleith, my
first boss. But then I recalled the curse
on the Forbes Pri ze l ecturer, rather
l i ke the curse on the di scoverers of
Tutankhamens tomb (Carter died, Lord
Carnarvon died, as did many others). In
the case of the Forbes Prize lecture, may
I bring to your attention that Mr Forbes
himself is dead, and if we look at the first
recipients: Dr Plenderleith from the UK
died, Mr Coremans from Belgium died,
Mr Gettens from the USA died, Mr Van
Schendel from the Netherlands died and
Mr Ruhemann from Germany died. So
personally, I dont feel very well; in front
of such a global curse, I asked myself,
To be or not to be . . . a Forbes Prize
lecturer? But I quickly realized that if
I refused this honour, the Forbes Prize
lecture (including the curse) would have
passed to one of you; you who all have
dear families. So I took courage and, in a
sense of altruism, I accepted.
The deci si on to accept has al so
forced me to find a topic for this lecture.
Haydar Koyupinar, Bayerische Staatsgemlde-
sammlungen Mnchen.
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I decided to speak about Conservation
and Restoration. Simply conservation
and restoration: not conservation and
restorati on i n context and to cross
boundari es, i n case I pre-empt the
di scussi ons we wi l l have duri ng the
remainder of this week. The significance
of these two words, conservati on
and restorati on, has evol ved duri ng
past centuri es, and even i n the past
35 years. As we use those two words
every day in our profession, it is essential
to understand whether we agree or
di sagree about thei r si gni f i cance i n
2006. The two words exi st i n nearl y
al l l anguages, but to reduce the ri sk
of confusi on l et us confi ne oursel ves
to English. The first time I faced this
problem was as an intern in the British
Museum Research Laboratory in October
1970, when Tony Werner was its director.
During a lunch I told him my surprise that
practitioners at the British Museum were
called conservators while those at the
National Gallery were called restorers.
He responded that it was because at
the Nati onal Gal l ery they were doi ng
restoration and at the British Museum
they were doing conservation.
The conf usi on i ncreased when I
realized that in 1950 a group of people
created IIC, the International Institute
for Conservation of Historic and Artistic
Works. Then, in 1956 the same group
of people created another international
organi zati on (ICCROM) the ful l name
of which is the International Centre for
the Study of Preservation and Restora-
tion. Why conservation here and pre-
servati on and restorati on there? Are
those two organi zati ons not deal i ng
i n the same f i el d? I n an attempt to
clarify this confusion, I have asked my
students over the years to write down
their personal definitions of conservation
and restoration. I have collected over
1500 definitions from 1500 colleagues
from all over the world different coun-
tries, different cultures, different fields,
different functions and different ages.
They have, of course, provided me with
1500 different written definitions that I
have safeguarded.
For this lecture I went to the ICCROM
l i br ar y and t ook out t hr ee books
publ i shed i n the l ast three years by
Butterworths, a serious publisher in our
field. One book is called Conservation of
Leather, the second is called Restoration
of Moving Picture Films and the third The
Conservation and Restoration of Glass.
Why such a difference, if you feel, as
I do, that all three books deal with the
same field? If you search the ICCROM
library database today you will find 6240
books or articles with conservation in
their titles, 1613 with restoration in their
titles and 415 with conservation and
restoration in their titles.
If you look at 10 professional English-
speaking organizations
1
and you study
the words that they have defined pre-
cisely, nine have defined conservation,
ei ght restorati on, seven preventi ve
conservati on, and si x preservati on.
Active conservation, remedial conserva-
tion, preventive care and restoration/
conservation have each been defined
by only one organization. So, I have the
impression that we are living in the Tower
of Babel. I would like to ask if you at
least agree that the final objective of our
profession is:
Through conservation and restora-
tion, to provide works of art in the
best condi ti on wi th the ri chest
message transmitted to the public
and the specialists of today and
tomorrow.
Could you vote on this? I see that 97%
of the room agrees, whi ch i s qui te
encouragi ng, but now l et us see i f
you agree on how the two concepts
of conservation and restoration are
related using the diagram in Figure 1. Are
conservation and restoration completely
separate (Figure 1A), touching (Figure
1B) , i nt er connect ed ( Fi gur e 1C) ,
synonymous ( Fi gure 1D) , or i s one
included in the other restoration within
conservation (Figure 1E) or conservation
within restoration (Figure 1F)?
I will give you 15 seconds to choose
and then ask you to vote usi ng your
green cards for the situation that best
meets your understanding of the terms.
The results from the lecture attendees
are:
A 1%; B 5%; C 56%; D 1%; E 35%;
F 2%.
This is very close to the results I have
obtained in eight conferences and lec-
tures I have gi ven i n the past year
and whi ch have i ncl uded over 800
participants:
Figure 1 Relationships between the two concepts of conservation and restoration.
1
AIC, APE L, ECCO, ICOM-CC, IC Australia, IIC,
IIC-CG, IFLA, UK-IC, and VE-RES.
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text y15/3
A 4%; B 8%; C 47%; D 10%; E 27%;
F 4%.
From these two results we observe that
the profession is divided, with roughly
50% f eel i ng t hat conser vat i on and
restoration are interconnected while 30%
feel that the concept of conservation
includes the concept of restoration. How
can we work and move forward if we
disagree on those basic concepts?
Now that I have shown you through
various examples how members of the
profession interpret conservation and
restorati on di fferentl y you deserve a
10-minute holiday. Together we will now
experience an exceptional moment; in
an IIC conference, the lecturer will not
speak the words conservati on and
restorati on, the i nterpreters are not
allowed to use the words conservation
and restoration and the audience are
not allowed to think conservation and
restoration.
So let us look at various activities in
our everyday professional lives the end
activities of our work. Some of us retouch
a canvas pai nti ng, others reshape a
dented metallic vase, others de-acidify
a drawing, others reorganize a storage
area, others reintegrate a mural painting,
others involve the public (and receive
the Keck Award for this), others disinfest
wooden furni ture, others consol i date
a mosai c l ef t i n si t u, ot hers i nst al l
ultraviolet filters to protect collections of
textiles, others desalinate ceramics from
a shipwreck, others repaint the intonaco
of a Baroque church. Some ventilate (or
not) a showcase, some glue the arm
on a broken statue, some control the
humidifier in an exhibition space, some
disinfect the books in a library attacked
by micro-organisms. These are just 15
sample activities in which one or all of us
are involved.
I am sure that in reading this list of
actions, Mr Forbes would have sensed
di sorder rather than order, so l et me
propose an order by grouping the actions
in three columns (Table 1). What criteria
have I chosen to establish this order?
The first is the reason behind the action
(Table 2). The second criterion is the
objective of our action (Table 3).
At thi s poi nt, coul d you use your
green card to vote i f you agree wi th
my classification; I feel reassured that
93% of you agree. I should point out
that some actions could, of course, fall
either in the first or second column: for
instance, when we reline a canvas, when
we remove dust, when we reverse an
old intervention, or when we rebind a
book.
Now let us look at six other criteria.
Is the action direct or indirect? What is
the state of the artefact? Is the action
applied to a single work or a group of
works? Is the result visible? What priority
should the action be given? Who should
carry out the action? With these criteria
we could construct Table 4.
It i s a combi nati on of these three
types of actions that allows the cultural
heri tage to be i n the soundest state
possible, with the richest message for
the specialists and public of today and
tomorrow. The important question now
is how to name those three actions
which are obviously different, are carried
out for different reasons, have different
objectives and priorities, and are realized
by di ff erent speci al i sts. An obvi ous
conclusion is that those three actions
shoul d have t hree di ff erent names.
I t i s now the end of the 10-mi nute
conservation holiday and time to decide
the names we will give these actions.
You will agree with me that the estab-
lishment of a common definition of those
actions accepted by the profession is
today necessary, possible and urgent.
It is necessary because we have to
understand each other. We know we are
in a terrible state of confusion, but we
refuse to face it. It is necessary to under-
stand each other better when wi thi n
the same association we do not speak
the same professi onal l anguage, l et
alone when various associations meet.
Table 1 Grouping of actions
A B C
Action Retouch
Reshape
Glue
Reintegrate
Repaint
Disinfest
De-acidify
Desalinate
Disinfect
Consolidate
Humidify
Ventilate
Install
Organize storage
Involve public
Table 2 Reasons behind the actions
A B C
Reason The work no longer
transmits its richest
message
The work is actively
deteriorating at the
moment
Without action, the work
may be damaged
Table 3 Objectives of the actions
A B C
Objective Recover readability,
aesthetic aspect, historic
state, or technical use lost
due to a past aggression
Stop the present
aggression and bring the
work back to a stable
state
Avoid, block, reduce or
control possible future
aggression
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Those who created IIC realized it to be
necessary to act in common, following
basic common principles. It was rather
easi er to understand each other 50
years ago when we were a l i mi t ed
group. I remember a period when the
Council at ICCROM was composed of
12 people elected by representatives
from 40 countries, all of them friends.
Now the ICCROM Council is made up
of 26 members elected by representatives
from 117 countries. In the case of IIC,
the same situation is faced; through the
years, various national IIC committees
have been created that further develop
the Babel Tower Syndrome. An element
of this confusion can be seen by reading
t he prepr i nt s of t hi s conf erence; I
picked out the following terms: active
conservation, collection care, curative
conservation, interventive conservation,
non-interventive conservation, passive
conservation, preventive conservation,
preventive care, remedial conservation,
scientific conservation, house clean-
i ng, conservati on-restorati on, pre-
ventati ve conservati on, restorati on
and preservation. Certainly those 15
words and expressions can be grouped
within the three categories listed above.
I f so, t he si t uat i on i s a l i t t l e more
complex as we started with two words
(conservation and restoration), which
were supposed to define our profession,
and have ended up with three.
It is necessary because, for example,
when you conduct l i brary research,
do you type preventive conservation,
non-active conservation, passive con-
servation, preventative conservation or
preventive care? Are all these phrases
not synonymous?
It is necessary because if we want
to cross boundaries we will meet the
public and we have to be understood by
the public for whom we are working. We
all laugh when we read in a newspaper
that a monument or a painting has been
restored to its original splendour. We all
know that it is not true, but what are we
doing to clarify our work to the public?
Finally, it is necessary at a time of
fi nanci al constrai nt to deal wi th the
essential and we need, therefore, to ex-
plain clearly what is essential. I will give
an example. Last year, the fresco in a 60
metre-high dome of a church in Rome
was damaged by rain infiltration. Scaf-
folding was erected so the frescos could
be retouched, but nothing was done to
repair the roof. Did they identify the es-
sential and spend their money well?
It is possible to write common defini-
tions. When I was trying to find a topic
for this lecture I said to some colleagues
that I might chose the theme A common
definition of conservation and restora-
tion; their comments were either once
again?, why? or are you crazy?. But
having worked on the theme, I think that
it is possible to find a common definition
if we have a minimum of flexibility, if we
accept that change can be good and
if we apply a certain methodology. We
have all probably read that last week the
2500 delegates at a worldwide congress
Table 4 Six other criteria
A B C
Type of action Direct Direct/indirect Indirect
State of artefact Damaged, but stable Unstable and in process of deterioration Old or new, in good or bad state
Type of work Single work Single work or group of works Surroundings of a group of works
Result Always visible Rarely visible Almost never visible
Priority Desirable Top priority Essential
Actor Conservator/restorer
a
Conservator/restorer or technician Various professionals and public
Name of action ? ? ?
a
I use the term conservator/restorer as it was the term accepted by the conference in Pavia in October 1997 at which most European countries were
represented.
on astronomy declassified Pluto as a
planet. They accepted that change for
clarification was good; are we not in the
same situation?
It is possible as long as the clarifica-
tion is made separately in each country
by a group of professi onal s i n thei r
national language (UK English, US Eng-
lish, Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish,
Japanese, etc.) Then, and only then,
the three corresponding terms in various
languages could be established and the
equi val ent terms gi ven to transl ators
worki ng i n i nternati onal conferences
such as this.
I t i s ur gent because i ncreasi ng
numbers of young practi ti oners and
politicians, as well as the public, are
requesting a clear definition. A discussion
on art conservation and restoration has
just started on Wikipedia. Some countries
have already made laws, including the
i ntroducti on of some defi ni ti ons at a
national level. This year, the European
Committee for Standardization (CEN/
TC 346 WG1) has the task to defi ne
conservati on and restorati on. Do
we want to have defi ni ti ons i mposed
on us? Would it not be better if all our
professional associations spoke with one
voice? Some people have said that this
would be difficult, others have said that
this will be a long process, but those are
both excellent reasons to start now.
In conclusion I would like to quote Jean
Monnet, one of the founding fathers of
the EU: The most beautiful achievement
of mankind is to unify mankind.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I woul d l i ke to thank the 1500 col -
leagues who have provided me with their
definitions; Marie Berducou, Bertrand
Lavdrine, Catherine Antomarchi, and
Denis Guillemard, who through long dis-
cussions have contributed greatly to this
debate; Meriem Boudjelti and Maurizio
Quagliuolo for their PowerPoint exper-
tise; Terry Little for helping to perfect
the English in this presentation; the staff
of ICCROM, who have acted as spar-
ring partners; and Mr Forbes, who has
been a continuous inspiration. For those
who attended the lecture, I would like to
remind you of the important role played
by my bathtub.
This text has been adapted for pub-
l i cati on and does not i ncl ude al l of
the i l l ustrati ons presented duri ng the
conference.