Konservering inför utställning - fallstudie kring bemålade vävtapeter på Röhsska museet

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight issues and potential problems regarding conservation in an exhibition situation. The thesis presents a case study from the Röhsska museum, in Gothenburg, where an interior of painted tapestries was currently being conserved and restored. The study includes general history about the painted tapestries, conservation history and information about the current treatments. The painted tapestries originates from a former manor [sv: säteri] in Gothenburg called Hökälla and were donated to the Röhsska museum in 1916. The tapestries were a part of the museum’s permanent exhibition until 1996, when it was dismounted and put in storage. With the museum’s centenary approaching an alteration to some of the exhibition space was taking place and the painted tapestries were to be displayed again. The conservation/restoration included removal of secondary paint layers of distemper and retouching, which may be considered as a quite extensive measure of restoration. The benefits and disadvantages of this are being discussed as well as the probability of the same treatment being carried out at a differently orientated museum. This, however, proved a somewhat difficult theory to argue. Instead the general opinion seems to have been that the chosen action of conservation/restoration is depending on the specific object and the conservator performing the conservation, rather than the orientation of the museum.