Do museums innovate in the conservation and restoration of artwork? Differences between countries

Abstract

This paper examines the types of artwork restoration innovation that museums undertake, and how their knowledge bases influence these innovations. The study is based on a sample derived from a survey of 167 museums in 43 countries, with 90 of the museums having a restoration and conservation department. The sample selected for this paper includes 59 museums from nine countries: South Africa, the United States, Austria, Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Two important conclusions can be inferred from the results obtained in this paper. The first is that museums in these nine countries do innovate in the restoration and conservation of artwork. The second is that innovation performance, and the works that museums are able to restore, depend on the combination of symbolic, analytical and synthetic knowledge bases.