Online global conservation conference opens in Beijing

A key global event in the field of museum collections conservation was inaugurated in Beijing on Monday, bringing online more than 1,000 conservation experts, conservators and scholars from over 60 countries.

Themed "Transcending Boundaries: Integrated Approaches to Conservation", the conservation conference of International Council of Museums (ICOM-CC) will last until Friday. It is scheduled to discuss the concept and theory of museum collections conservation, the development and selection of conservation materials, the application of conservation techniques, equipment, tools and technologies, as well as the evaluation of conservation status and display performance.

Participants are experts from prestigious institutions worldwide including the Palace Museum in Beijing, Getty Conservation Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Harvard Art Museums, the National Gallery of the United Kingdom, the National Museum of Denmark, National Gallery of Denmark, the National Gallery of Norway, the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, the Municipal Museum of Amsterdam, the National Museum of Cameroon, Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, and more.

The conference program includes 21 specialized working group sessions, showcasing the latest achievements in various specialized fields of collections conservation from a global and multiple-dimensional perspective.

A total of 159 professional academic papers and 99 professional academic posters worldwide were selected by the Conference Paper Selection Committee, representing the latest global academic achievements in the field of heritage conservation since the last conference in 2017.

Among these, 18 papers and 26 academic posters from China were selected, making it an international conference on collections conservation with most Chinese academic achievements.

Established in 1967, ICOM-CC is the largest of ICOM's 32 international committees, and is dedicated to the research, exchange and promotion of cultural heritage conservation theory and related science and technology.

The committee has over 4,000 members globally who are mainly heritage conservation experts and conservators in cultural institutions and museums. Although originally planned for September, the ongoing conference was postponed due to the impact of the COVID-19, also echoing the International Museum Day, which falls on Tuesday.

In China, the conservation system based on risk management has been established and is becoming more systematic and comprehensive with the help of a multidisciplinary approach. To engage global conservators who are unable to come to China in person, the conference committee has arranged and coordinated the filming of exclusive technical visit videos of 10 cultural institutions and museums from across China, including the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, the National Centre for Archaeology, and the Capital Museum in Beijing. These videos will be available to global participants through the conference online platform.