From July to September 2016, the National Art Collections Preservation and Restoration Demonstration Project will be held in Beijing. The activity is sponsored and implemented by the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), with full support from the Ministry of Culture and subsidy from the National Endowment for the Arts. As a core content of the entire project, an international symposium on the preservation and restoration of national art collections was held ceremoniously in NAMOC from July 6 to 7, 2016.

At the opening ceremony, Dong Wei, vice culture minister, said that in recent years, the Chinese culture ministry has approved and implemented the National Art Collection Project, in a bid to make the national art collection system more complete, and give full play to its academic and social values. The art collections preservation and restoration is a key component of the project.

NAMOC curator Wu Weishan gave a warm welcome to the restoration and preservation experts and scholars at the opening ceremony. He said that “Confucius said it is always a pleasure to greet friends from afar. In Chinese ancient times, there was a popular saying on sitting and prattling about the general principle. Today, we have so many guests here in NAMOC from various regions, countries and cultures. We have one thing in common, which is to keep art spirit lasting forever through protection of collections.”

As the sponsor and executing unit of the project, NAMOC has attached importance to the preservation and restoration of collections in recent years. It has obtained encouraging results under warm supports of experts home and abroad. This has played a positive role in the protection and effective utilization of collections. The activity is a great event for exchanges in the international artwork preservation and restoration sector. It is also a significant opportunity for NAMOC to improve collection protection research.

This activity is separated into two major parts. The international symposium was attended by famous experts and scholars from international authoritative, professional agencies, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and the Preservation and Restoration Association in the United States; the British Museum, Tate Gallery from Britain; the Collection Protection and Research Center and Musé é Cernuschi in France; the Italian Association for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage and Promotion; Tokyo National Museum and Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties in Japan; as well as Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department, National Taiwan Normal University, Cheng Shiu University, Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, Chinese National Academy of Arts. The participants delivered academic lectures, and launched in-depth discussions on the subjects of policies and management mechanisms for protection and restoration of national art collections, principles and ideas on collections preservation and restoration, preventive protection and intervention of modern science and technology, and sharing of preservation and restoration examples. They jointly explored theoretical issues in the restoration field, promoted exchanges of latest research results, and enhanced international mutual aid and cooperation.

In the wake of the international symposium, the training project will focus on the key academic issues proposed and discussed in the international symposium, to clarify the ideas and principles for preservation and restoration, especially the demonstration of techniques for the preservation and restoration of scrolled painting and calligraphy works and Chinese oil paintings, and training and basic application of preventive protection awareness. The demonstration of practical techniques for restoration will last for two months. The professionals participating in the symposium and training project will have the opportunity to communicate in theory and practice.