Preventive Conservation
The goal of Preventative conservation is to stabilize an object at its current condition and prevent any further damage or deterioration. It is an important part of Art Conversation.
Preventive Conservation
One of the major ideas behind preventive conservation is that it is never too late. An object of art, for example, that is discovered in some lost tomb has been damaged to some degree or another by the ravages of time. It is now how it is, but in order to preserve it for the benefit of future generations, it must be kept how it is. Preventative conservation employs scientific knowledge to the problem of keeping things exactly how they appear now.
It is easy to understand how this differs from restoration which is an attempt to undue the impact of time and environment on the object and restore it to as close to its original condition as possible. The preventive Conservationist is only interested in maintaining the status quo. In preventive conservation, damage is considered to be an integral part of the object. It is part of its history. To attempt to restore it, changes it and makes it something entirely new.
Preventive conservation makes use of an understanding of how the external environment can harm objects. Temperature, humidity, excessive direct light, and sunlight are all examples of environmental factors impacting art objects. In the caves of France where wall paintings done millions of years ago were discovered, you can find an example of the problems of environmental control. The paintings had stayed fairly pristine for millions of years before their recent discovery. When they became a tourist attraction, and thousands of visitors filed through the caves to see them, the carbon dioxide generated by their breathing began to deteriorate the images.
The preventive conservationist is an environmental monitor. No one would have guessed the impact of carbon dioxide on the primitive wall paintings, but by constant monitoring, the negative impact was discovered and preventive action taken. Constant and scientific monitoring of art is a responsibility of art conservation. It is through this monitoring process that any changes to the condition and stability of the work can be detected and preventive measures undertaken.
It might be thought that the best way to conserve art from the past is to lock it away it a dark, environmentally controlled vault. This would surely keep it safe and prevent its deterioration. Yet, this is not an option for the preventative conservationist because it avoids the real reason why art is being preserved. It belongs to us all, this fine art of the past, and it belongs to our future. But, its purpose is to be seen and enjoyed. Preventive conservation must balance the need to protect beauty and the need to enjoy it.