You recently started working at the Rijksmuseum, the world-famous art museum in Amsterdam, as part of your practical studies at the University. How many trade secrets do you know that, if you told us, you would have to kill us?
Well, the trade secrets are known. The restoration community is so small that we have a special website dedicated to openly sharing any new information freely. But if you’re referring to the fun facts like what happens to the ‘Nachtwacht’ when there is a bomb-scare, unfortunately I’m not allowed to tell you. But I can assure you it is nothing you expect and therein lies its brilliance.
How did you get into art restoration?
I did my degree in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria and then started looking at what was on offer in the field of restoration.
What made you decide to study it in Amsterdam?
Restoration is still very new in formal education, even in Europe, so I needed to go to a country where I would be able to get the best education in order to go back to South Africa and pioneer some development in the field there. Restoration studies in Europe is not yet open to international study and I would be required to study in the language of the country I am in. So, considering I am Afrikaans, studying in Dutch would be far easier than say, French or Italian.
How long will you have to study before you are allowed to work on the Mona Lisa?
It really depends on the nature of the restoration. If you define yourself in the area of painting or the specific type of fungus problem, for example, that needs to be treated, the answer would be – how fast can you get here?
Why are visitors not allowed to take pictures with a flash in a museum? Does it really fade paintings?
Interestingly enough, no. Flash photography is too quick an exposure to really damage artworks, even very fragile paper works. Museums started banning flash photography when photos were still taken with bulb flashes, which had a tendency to explode and could then damage artworks. Nowadays it is enforced to protect copyright, stop criminals from taking images of the layout of the museum and because it bothers other museum guests.
How big is the art theft market? How many pieces get stolen?
That’s a difficult figure to quote off the top of my head, but it is a relatively small percentage. Vandalism is a far bigger problem. The Rijksmuseum, for example, does not publish or let on to the vandalism that occurs in the museum, as vandals often deface artworks for the notoriety. This way they get the jail time without the exposure and it discourages other vandals.
Suppose SA Promo walks through the Louvre, and we spill a can of Coke on the Mona Lisa, how much will it cost to have it repaired?
The cost of a restoration depends on the type of damage. There are emergency response teams that will react immediately to have the damage contained and then, depending on the amount of scientific research that needs to be done on the nature of the damage, it can rack up quite a bill, easily tens of thousands of Euro’s or more.
How big a percentage of the art work that the public sees in a museum has been touched up, or in some cases, been completely re-done?
It is extremely rare for an art-work to be “re-done”. This is sometimes the case with something like the original Diary of Anne Frank. A work has a certain allowable amount of “light-hours” allowed per year (natural light is extremely damaging for most objects). If this amount runs out before the end of the year, the object must be “retired” for the rest of the year, and then a copy is put in its place. Other than that, artworks are merely treated for fungus, moisture, infestations, vandalism and to preserve them. Artworks are not completely painted over to look new, but are treated to conserve the original intent of the artist.
Did famous artists like Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Picasso not know that their art would deteriorate, making it necessary to be restored, or did they just not care?
They would all have been aware that their work would age. There would be no way for them to have stopped it from failing, everything ages and thus deteriorates. We can slow deterioration, but we cannot stop it completely.
Where would you want to work for the rest of your life?
The wonderful thing about restoration is that you get to consult all over the world. If you set your mind to some or other issue, you can easily be the seminal source on that area. It is a very vibrant industry to be involved in.
