Antiquities Conservation

Conservators at the Getty Villa Museum are responsible for the preservation, treatment, and technical research of all material types in the antiquities collection. The department’s work also involves preventive care of its collection, encompassing climate control, environmental monitoring and mount making, and oversight of exhibition installations and outgoing loans. Getty conservators conduct in-depth technological studies and material research of objects—from within the collection and on special loan—to gain insight into their specific history, including methods of manufacture, use, deterioration and/or alterations and to determine how these affect their treatment, preservation, and display. The department plays a leading international role in the development, manufacture, and evaluation of approaches and fixtures for the protection of delicate and monumental objects on display in the event of earthquakes, known as seismic damage mitigation. Committed to conservation training, the department hosts interns through the Getty internship program, and supports the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage.

The department regularly collaborates with national and international institutions on projects that involve the technical study, evaluation of historic repairs, and conservation of ancient works of art. These partnerships aim at improving the understanding and state of preservation of an object or a group of objects, often contributing to exhibitions, and assist in local conservation training. Information gained through the department’s various activities is regularly shared through lectures, seminars, symposia, and publications.

Examples for major projects over the last decades cover objects of a variety of media and scale: a monumental Roman marble statue of a god, Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections); four bronze lamps from Vani, Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia; Apulian vases, Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany; three large-scale Roman bronzes and a monumental ceramic funerary krater from National Archaeological Museum Naples, Italy; technical study of the Mensa Isiaca, Museo Egizio Turin; conservation of a bronze Horse+Rider from Albania; and a collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on the “Auloi from Meroë”, Sudan. Current projects include the study and reconstruction of a large-scale clay head of Buddha from Merv at the State Museum of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; and the examination and conservation of five Neolithic lime plaster figures from ‘Ayn Ghazal, Jordan.