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VENUS BLUE DAMAGE (left) AFTER CONSERVATION TREATMENT (right)

The majestic deep shade and brilliance of the ultramarine blue pigment has conquered the heart of artists and viewers of the Western world since the medieval illuminated manuscripts from c.1100. ‪Natural Ultramarinus (lapis lazuli), which literally means: "beyond the sea” was imported from Asia, more specific from the quarries of Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan. According to Marco Polo’s description, the finest blue azuri “…appears in veins like silver streaks”. Due to its vibrant shade, unmatched by any other blue, the pigment was more valuable than gold during the 13th century and beyond. Renai...

by Viviana Dominguez, Chief Conservator, Art Conservators Lab

"Untitled" Pierre August Renoir

After Treatment

Before Treatment

Detailed of damaged surface
"Untitled" (1947) Serge Ivan Chermayeff

Before Treatment

After Treatment
“Untitled” (1963)Tikashi Fukushima

Before Treatment

After Treatment
Portrait of Maria T Rojas (1943) by Wifredo Lam

Before Treatment

“Euterpe” (1973) Ralph Iwamoto
After Treatment

Before Treatment

After Treatment
"Untitled" Stivenson Magloire

BeforeTreatment

After Treatment
"Mdme Roux" Max Pinchinat

Before Treatment

After Treatment
"Old Lady" Mario Benjamin

Before Treatment

After Treatment

"Marche Aux Fleur" by Eduoard Cortes

Before Treatment

After Treatment
Wilshire Building Art Deco Decorative Ceiling

Before Treatment

After Treatmen...

The eighteen-month long Smithsonian Institution Haiti Cultural Recovery Project was an international, collaborative, conservation effort to recover cultural patrimony gravely damaged by the January 12, 2010 earthquake. As Chief Conservator and Paintings Conservator, respectively, Stephanie directed conservation activities to support projects at twenty public and private institutions, and Viviana oversaw the paintings conservation activities. Here we relate the story of one remarkable conservation treatment and its context, the recovery of a fragmented Stivenson Magloire painting, mentioned in an earlier blog post here on The Bigger Picture.

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Photo: From left to right Erntz Jeudy, Jean Menard Derenoncourt and Viviana Dominguez.

Thousands of paintings have been rescued from the rubble of collapsed museums and galleries in Port-au-Prince after the devastating earthquake of January 2010. The artwork was brought to the Smithsonian Institution’s Haiti Cultural Recovery Center (CRCH) to be conserved by US professionals under the direction of Chief Conservator Stephanie Hornbeck.

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