Preservation of Plastics

Despite advances in the conservation of plastics and a growing number of research projects on the topic, there is still a need to better understand the aging and deterioration of these materials and to improve conservation strategies to preserve them.

Preservation of Plastics aims to study a wide range of plastics to understand how to prevent or slow down their degradation, estimate risks, establish suitable approaches into their preservation, and design appropriate conservation treatments.

• The Plastics Reference Collection—well-characterized standards or reference materials that support analytical studies of plastics in museum collections, treatment studies, workshops, and other educational activities
• German Democratic Plastics in Design— a collaborative research project exploring production processes and technologies for plastic materials used in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) between 1949 and 1990
• A 2023 partnership with Museo del Novecento, Museum of Cultures of Milan, and Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale to conserve Gino Marotta’s Giraffa Artificiale, a nine-foot-tall sculptural giraffe comprising sixty-seven pieces of transparent pink poly(methyl methacrylate). The treatment successfully reestablished the sculpture’s transparency and intended form, and it is back on display in Milan’s Natural History Museum.
• A partnership with the Disney Animation Research Library (ARL) studied animation art held by the library in an effort to better understand the changes that occur in these materials over time, with the ultimate aim of improving ways of preserving not only Disney's animation cels but also any object made from the same types of plastic.
• A hands-on workshop held in December 2017 for five participants from Southern California institutions with Disney animation cels in their collections explored innovative treatments for relaying animation cel paints exhibiting delamination, flaking, or both.
• A complimentary workshop series, Conservation of Plastics in Museum Collections, to provide professionals with current knowledge in the conservation of plastics and rubbers.

Conservation Institute: Anna Laganà, Principal Research Specialist, Senior Research Specialist; Herant Khanjian, Associate Scientist; Tom Learner, Head of Science; Joy Mazurek, Associate Scientist; Michał Łukomski, Senior Scientist; Ellen Moody, Associate Project Specialist; Flavia Perugini, Senior Project Specialist; Michael Schilling, Senior Scientist

Getty Research Institute: Melissa Huddleston

Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands: Suzan de Groot, Henk van Keulen, Ron Kievits

University of Amsterdam: Maarten van Bommel

Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands; University of Amsterdam; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Die Neue Sammlung–The Design Museum