Custody
Keeping and repair — conservation as daily work.
4 entries in this section.
Every entry names a thing and the place that holds it. Where the record is thin or contested, the entry says so.
All of Custody
Conservation is maintenanceThe condition report that finds nothing has gone wrong is the best outcome. Most of conservation is making sure it never comes to that.Read
ReversibilityThe rule that conservation should leave the next conservator a way back.Read
Light, damp and pestsThe three agents that destroy collections — ranked by what they cost to fix. Light fades for good, damp warps and moulds, pests destroy fastest.Read
The store, not the galleryMost of what a museum holds, you will never see. The store is not a failure of display — it is where the real work of custody happens.Read
A retouching tray is a short history of what a studio could buy. Several of these colours are no longer manufactured.
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