Abstracts - International Initiative for Georgian Cultural Studies

RESTORATION/CONSERVATION
Mari Claude Depassiot
Municipal Center of Archaeological Studies and Restoration.France
Restoration or Conservation, What to Choose?
For a long time, restorers demanded to restore fully works of art, i.e. to return them to their initial appearance.
However, if we consider the fact that over time every material gets older and is affected by various
conditions and thus altered, restoring the initial appearance of an object seems elusive. Though this
approach may still exist on the art market, the scientific-professional and cultural society expects a different
approach from the restorer: minimal intervention and great responsibility.
Within the scope of projects carried out in Georgia, I have implemented the restoration/conservation
of antique glass and ceramics artifacts, namely of two unique glass jugs discovered in village Khovle in
2005 and some unique examples of glass and ceramic vessels kept in the Museum of Mtskheta. At the same
time, I have provided the students of restoration at Tbilisi State Academy of Art with workshops, where I
have demonstrated and explained the major principals of conservation ethics: clarity (the clear perception
of the authentic image and the traces of any kind of intervention) and maintaining the stability of the work
of art.
Comparing the similarities between the restoration methods applied to the bronze belts kept in the
Mtskheta Museum and those in National Museum of Archeology in Saint Germain in Laye (MAN), which
were discovered near the Armenian-Georgian border in 1885-88 and later brought to France by J. Morgan,
give us more ground to analyze the principles of the professional ethics of restoration, its goals and appropriateness.
In 1997-2000, restoration work on the belts was performed for the second time. But, unfortunately, due
to the incorrect and irreversible methods of restoration used in ‘20s and in 1978-79, and as a result of a lack
of documentation of these methods, it is now entirely impossible to read the engraved décor. Though some
notes by Morgan exist, there is no description of the belts’ previous condition.
The complete diagnostic study of the items became possible only after a radiographic investigation was
performed in 1997 -2000.
The difficulties related to the determination of the goals and conception of conservation/restoration, its
risk factors, the demands of professional ethics, and the cost of restoring works are the factors which make
the restorer think about the appropriates of any conservation intervention. That’s why we should preference
conservation, rather then restoration.
Nino Kalandadze
Georgian National Museum.Tbilisi State Academy of Art. Georgia
The Method for Conservation of Bronze Artifacts by the Example of Findings Unearthed in Ancient
Settlement of Vani
The 2007 archaeological campaign in Vani was marked by the unearthing of buried treasure unusual for
the site: iron and bronze artifacts. The treasure was buried in a quadrangular pit, hastily cut in the living
rock (length – 1.85 m, width – 0.85 m, depth – 0.85 m) on the lower terrace of the city. The site under consideration
lies at the south-east edge of the settlement. Remains of a defensive wall of the city can be traced
there. Most likely, the treasure was buried after the defensive wall collapsed and substructure stones were
removed to be re-used. Dimitri Akhvlediani, the archaeologist responsible for unearthing the treasure, dated
the findings back to the Late Hellenic period. At the same time, he assumed that the treasure was buried in
mid-first century B.C., after the city was razed to ground.
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