The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) is the national membership organization of conservation professionals. Its members include conservators, educators, scientists, students, archivists, art historians, and other conservation enthusiasts in over twenty countries around the world.
In 1992, the Kimbell Art Museum partnered with the neighboring Amon Carter Museum of American Art to initiate a joint paintings conservation department based in the Kimbell conservation studio that continues to the present day.
This site provides in-depth conservation information on one of Jan van Eyck's most famous works, The Ghent Altarpiece.
In 2008, in conjunction with the University of Arizona Museum of Art, the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University organized an in-depth exhibition on twenty-six panels of the fifteenth-century retablo (altarpiece) of the Cathedral of the Ciudad Rodrigo by the Hispano-Flemish artist Fernando Gallego and his workshop. Under the direction of Kimbell conservator Claire Barry, the panels underwent various technical examinations, including X-radiography and infrared reflectography, which revealed beautiful underdrawings that had remained hidden for more than five centuries and provided invaluable insight into fifteenth-century Castilian workshop practices.
CAMEO is a searchable information center developed by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The MATERIALS database contains chemical, physical, visual, and analytical information on over 10,000 historic and contemporary materials used in the production and conservation of artistic, architectural, archaeological, and anthropological materials.
IIC is an independent international organization supported by individual and institutional members. It serves as a forum among professionals with responsibility for the preservation of cultural heritage. It advances knowledge, practice, and standards for the conservation of historic and artistic works through its publications and conferences. It promotes professional excellence and public awareness through its awards and scholarships.
Cranach Magnified allows you to investigate the refined painting technique of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) and his workshop by comparing zoomable macroscopic details from different paintings side by side.
WAAC is a nonprofit membership organization for professional conservators. WAAC was founded in 1975 to bring together conservators practicing in the western United States to exchange ideas, information, and news.
Donated to the University of Arizona Museum of Art in the 1950s, the Samuel H. Kress Collection consists of over sixty European paintings and sculptures, including the panels of the retablo (altarpiece) of the Cathedral of the Ciudad Rodrigo by fifteenth-century Castilian painter Fernando Gallego and his workshop, perhaps the finest example of Late Gothic Spanish painting in a U.S. collection today. In 2006, the Kimbell's director of conservation, Claire Barry, examined twenty-six panels from the Ciudad Rodrigo altarpiece in the Kimbell conservation studio in an effort to learn more about the workshop practices of Fernando Gallego and about one of the most important Spanish altarpieces of the fifteenth century.
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation devotes its resources to advancing the history, conservation, and enjoyment of the vast heritage of European art, architecture, and archaeology from antiquity to the nineteenth century.
The National Research Institute for Cultural Properties employs diverse methods in the research of Japanese cultural properties and publishes their results. They also conduct international exchanges of research related to conservation and restoration with regard to cultural properties of the world.
