PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Introduction
removed from its original location has lost a part of its identity
and power to reveal its original environment. In addition, if an
object becomes part of a museum’s collection, removing it again
is nearly impossible. 3
Modern conservation theory emphasizes the importance of
preserving historic wallpaper in its original location. Conservation
in situ has come to be preferred to removal of wallpapers
or the use of reproductions, since changing elements to create
a unity entails alteration of the whole. 4 According to the Venice
Charter, a monument is inseparable from the setting in which
it occurs. The moving of all or a part of a monument cannot
be allowed except where the safeguarding of that monument
demands it or where it is justified by national or international
interest of paramount importance. 5
Although the contemporary theory of conservation supports
the idea of preserving historic wallpaper in its original location,
in situ, it is not always possible. The wallpaper’s condition and
changes in the surrounding environment may lead to removing
the object from its original location. Depending on several
criteria, a wallpaper might be returned to its original location,
exhibited elsewhere or preserved in a museum. The most important
aim of conservation treatment is to stop further decay and
ensure the object’s preservation. Besides caring for an object,
an important task of a conservator is to inform other parties
connected with the conservation process of the relevance of a
historic wallpaper and options for preserving it.
In relation to that, removing a historic wallpaper from its
original location is justified only if dismounting assures its further
existence or makes more thorough conservation treatment
possible. Naturally, to ensure the historical continuity of a whole,
a wallpaper should be returned to its original location. However,
3
Bruno Ingemann, Present on Site: Transforming Exhibitions and Museums
(Lejre: Visual Memory Press, 2012), accessed January 14, 2013,
http://www.present-on-site.net/21_rubbish.html
4
Lilian Hansar, “Linnast muinsuskaitsealaks. Linnaehituslike struktuuride muutused
Eesti väikelinnades 13.–20. sajandil” (PhD. diss., Estonian Academy of Arts, 2010), 27.
5
International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites –
The Venice Charter, Arctile 7, 1964, http://www.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf.
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