One pragmatic strategy for achieving these goals is to shift away from prescriptive environments tightly centered on 21°C and 50% relative humidity (RH) and toward broader ranges of temperature (T) and RH for many types of objects.
Motivated by energy savings and energy security, as well as by an organizational interest in implementing environmental change, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia, is widening the environmental range in many of its galleries. This transition period presented an opportunity to examine the response of hygroscopic wooden objects when subject to expanding T and RH conditions.
The NGV and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) are collaborating on acoustic emission (AE) monitoring to assess the mechanical response of a 16th-century Flemish retable consisting of carved and polychromed wood and oil paint. This technique measures energy released by and propagated through a material that has undergone brittle cracking, and its high sensitivity can detect environmentally induced micro-change before damage is visible. Because of travel restrictions during the pandemic, it was decided to send the AE instrumentation to Australia and have GCI staff remotely train NGV conservators and guide installation of the instrumentation.
Complementing the in situ study of the retable’s response to broader environmental conditions, the NGV and GCI are organizing a workshop later this year on AE monitoring that draws on the gained experience of our NGV colleagues. The dissemination of information on this analytical technique and its application provides a means of supporting more sustainable practice for regional galleries and other collecting institutions.
