The Daily Bulletin Archive

The Art Conservation Department hosted three staff members from the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, this week (June 24–28). Our guests were Natalia Avetyan, art historian and curator of photographs in the Department of Russian History and Culture; and Marina Kozlova, chemist, and Tatiana Sayatina, conservator of photographs and head, both in the Laboratory for Scientific Conservation. They are responsible for the preservation and access of the hermitage’s extensive collections of photographic materials.  

They attended a seminar and workshop on technical studies of nineteenth-century and modern photographic materials, organized by Art Conservation assistant professor Jiuan Jiuan Chen in collaboration with Andrew W. Mellon Professor Cory Rogge, associate professor Aaron Shugar, and graduate student Krista Lough. This event was part of the Hermitage Photograph Conservation Initiative with the goal of establishing a department of photograph conservation at the State Hermitage Museum. Through a grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC), the initiative provides training, reference materials, cataloging, digital documentation, and equipment. It is co-directed by Paul Messier, alumnus 1990, and Vyacheslav Fedorov, director of the Department of Russian History and Culture.