Page 66 - EXPOTIME!Sept2017

Conservation projects, ethics and theory

Christian Mueller-Straten

New approaches in surface cleaning

The Handbuch der Oberflächenreinigung now covers the most important materials
and techniques

Within a few weeks, a remarkable privately funded con- followed, with identical content, but without full-text
servation literature projects is launched: one of the most search and active links, by the printed edition in two
successful conservation manuals, Eipper's Handbuch der volumes in November 2017.
Oberflächenreinigung [Manual of Surface Cleaning] ap-
pears in the 5th edition as an interactive eBook. It is 20 years ago, surface cleaning was still not an issue. It
was thought to be handled with quite old, but "proven"
recipes. Experiments were kept secret. Paintings for ex-
ample were cleaned with breadcrumbs, eraser gums, sa-
liva, and distilled water. We know today how dangerous
these methods were.

In the course of scientification of conservation-restora-
tion, preservation, especially the preventive, became
more and more prominent. Authors began to separate
surface cleaning from varnish removal, the consequenc-
es of one's own doing were focussed and conservator
were looking to develop methods that did not damage
the object even further. It was found that especially the
particularly effective methods have particularly serious
side effects. It was also noticed by business economists
that restorers were often working on objects for too long
(e.g. the Demoiselles d'Avignon in New York had been
cleaned with saliva for more than a year) and they fore-
saw that many works of art and paintings would not be
completely restored in the future, i.e. only cleaned for
reasons of cost saving.

The Editor of the Manual: However, there was no accumulated expert knowledge,
Dipl.-Rest. Dr. Paul-Bernhard Eipper not even at the academical training centers, where, in

He received his diploma as a conservator in 1992 from the the old tradition, treatments were taught, which were
University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany. 1990- actually incompatible with the changed conservation
2005 he has been Head of Conservation at the August De- ethics.
usser Museum, Bad Zurzach, Switzerland. From 2000 to
2009 he was a publicly appointed expert at the Chamber of
Commerce in Lower Saxony where he served as an expert Almost simultaneously with Wolbers, Paul-Bernhard Eip-
in questions concerning art restoration under legal consid- per began to deal intensively with surfactants, since the
eration in Germany. 2006-2009 he has been Head of Con- addition of surfactants to aqueous solutions seemed to
servation at the Alte Galerie, Universalmuseum Joanneum,
Graz, Austria. In 2009, he received his PhD from the Faculty him to be useful. In addition to the expected questions,
of Medicine at the private University of Witten-Herdecke in it became important to him what surfactants do with
Germany. Since 2010, he has been Head of the Conservation the craquelés. At the beginning was the publication of
unit at the Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz. 2013-2017 he these results (Eipper at al: Oelfarben-Oberflächenreini-
has been President of IIC-Austria. Since 2015 he has been
member of board of the Egon Schiele Research Society , Vi- gung, Munich 2004), followed by the publication of the
enna. He is the author of numerous articles and books. His Manual of surface cleaning together with 22 co-authors
main field of interest is the aqueous cleaning of oil-paint at the instigation of our publishing house. It was pub-
surfaces. Address: Referat Restaurierung, Universalmuseum lished as first edition in 2011 and was already out of print
Joanneum, Weinzöttlstrasse 16, 8045 Graz, Austria.
after a few months. However, the use of CD-ROMs could
initially meet the demand. In 2013, the 3rd and 4th edi-

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EXPOTIME!, issue August/September 2017