ABSTRACT
In the early twentieth century, art was restored quietly in the back rooms of museums. Restorers guarded trade secrets. George Stout, pioneer US conservator and former director of both the Worcester and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums, noted in an oral history interview that, in the 1930s, ‘it was naughty to inquire about the condition of a work of art, almost as naughty as to inquire about the digestive system of an opera singer’ (Stout interview, FAIC, 1975). By the beginning of the twenty-first century, museums across the globe had arranged major exhibitions and established websites featuring the innermost secrets of artworks, their health and condition. Some directors and curators have decided that witnessing in-progress conservation treatments can be of significant interest to the public and could change people’s perception of the museum from a storehouse to a living, breathing entity. Exciting the public about conservation has also helped with fundraising for better equipment, space, and HVAC systems for conservation departments and collections care.
