At the end of February 2010, the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (now renamed the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro) will be forced to leave the historical premises where it was founded 70 years ago, as a result of an eviction order requested by the company who owns the building. The ISCR [...]

UNESCO has called for a ban on trade in Haitian artefacts to prevent the pillaging of the country’s heritage. The organisation is launching a campaign to protect the country’s moveable heritage, particularly art collections in damaged museums, galleries and churches, now at risk from theft. The Director-General, Irina Bokova, is seeking the support of the [...]

UNESCO, ICCROM and other partners, have prepared a draft practical guide for basic documentation of collections in small museums. The document is available on the ICCROM website. A questionnaire can be downloaded from the same site. The authors are seeking feedback from people who work in museums with collections of between 5,000 and 8,000 objects [...]

The earthquake which devastated Haiti on 12 January 2010 has caused horrific loss of life and damage to the country’s already fragile infrastructure. While the effective delivery of the humanitarian response is the international community’s immediate goal, international heritage organisations and Haitian partners are now beginning to assess the damage to the country’s museums and [...]

A large Picasso painting, The Actor, owned by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has sustained a 15cm tear. A woman participating in an art class accidentally fell into the canvas painting causing damage to the lower right hand corner. The Museum has said that the painting will be repaired in time for an exhibition [...]

The Director-General of ICCROM, Mounir Bouchenaki has signalled the organisation’s readiness to offer help to Haitian colleagues and institutions responsible for protecting cultural heritage in the aftermath of yesterday’s earthquake.
It is thought that much of the historical centre of the capital Port-au-Prince has been badly damaged by the 7.0 Ricther scale quake, and it is [...]

Conservators have found the remains of the first aeroplane ever taken to Antarctica. The single-engine Vickers was part of the expedition by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson over 1911-12. However, the plane was never used in the air, serving instead as a motorised sledge, with its wings left back in England following an accident. It was [...]