I have recently been asked by colleagues from the National Technical Museum in Prague to mediate their request for help, as the institution has been heavily affected by the floods of last summer. Here is the message, and I sincerely hope that it will find a positive response.
Plea of the National Technical Museum in Prague for help to rescue the flooded Architecture Archives and other collections
The devastating flood, which hit Prague hard in the middle of August, heavily damaged the National Technical Museum archives and collections. Almost 90% of the following archives have been flooded: Industrial History Archives, unique Aviation Archives and especially the world-known Architecture Archives, which include complete heritage and documentation of the designs of the top Czech architects of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also many designs and original works by architects from all over the world. In addition, significant parts of our technical history collections were also submerged including a range of unique historical objects documenting the history of metallurgy, chemistry, machinery and electronics including its original plans and related documents.
Most of archival material have already been secured by deep-freezing (250 m3 in total) and include the following materials:
Pencil, ink and crayon sketches--on designer's glued and cardboard
Aquarelles
Designs on graph paper and designer's glued paper
Blueprint and ozalid copies
Period and contemporary photographs (of various technology).
The flood also affected the following types of architectural models:
Gypsum models
Paper models
Wooden models
Metal models
Combined models
In order to rescue the damaged documents and other items, the Museum is now preparing a special building with large utility space (2 x 300 m2) in which the frozen records should be defrosted, washed, disinfected, stabilized, dried and then registered, restored and put in a suitable storage. The building, which is conveniently located in downtown Prague is well equipped with rest rooms, offices and other handling rooms. The depository of the rescued items will be also located nearby with more office rooms (including accommodation units) available as appropriate.
While the National Technical Museum is able to provide these spaces and basic facilities to the restorers, we totally lack the necessary technology and practical experience as well as much of special equipment for conservation/renovation works. Therefore, our Museum would urgently appreciate the following technical assistance:
Portable freezers (approximately 2X3 m)
Spraying tubs (10 pieces: 5 rinsing and 5 germicide baths)
Drying chambers and boxes (also for large documents A1-A0)
Drying tables Vacuum presses
Furthermore, the following chemicals and materials are badly needed for the processing:
* Suitable germicide and stabilisation solutions (also for the treatment of 10% of the records not directly damaged by water, but inflicted by mildew in humid environment)
* Silicone and waxed slip papers
* Acid-free cardboards, record folders and boxes.
Lacking a suitable practical experience with such large-scale conservation and restoration works, we would very much appreciate if you could send expert restorers who could assist us to set up and run the workshops and provide methodological help and training for our own employees. There is also an idea behind to expand these works later into a special Training Department that would provide education and best practice examples to the Czech as well as foreign restorers.
Since much of our original archival facilities were almost completely destroyed we would welcome also a large number of suitable wrap materials including
archival boxes
drawing envelopes (A3 and A4 formats)
large-size archival envelopes (A1 and A0 formats)
acid-free silk paper paper boxes and envelopes for negatives (13x18 cm, 18x24 cm, 24x30 cm)
To safe the damaged metallic objects like historical engines, electrical tools and appliances and historical telecommunication apparatuses we would be much grateful for the following facilities for a mechanical shop and conservation works, respectively:
grinders
polishing machines
bench drilling machines
rust removers
preservative oils and waxes
lacquers and varnishes
workable plastics
Finally, in order to secure and document the respective documents and 3D historical objects, we will be much grateful for any suitable digitalisation equipment including the following:
A3 scanner for reflective and transparent materials
PC suitable for DTP
Office category PC's (several items)
A4/A3 laser colour printers (LAN)
A4/A3 copiers
Digital camera(s)
Obviously, besides of the above listed most urgent items, we will be highly grateful for any help, including financial contributions. The National Technical Museum has opened a special account for these purposes that is:
National Technical Museum (Floods) Bank account of the "Komercni banka" (Commercial Bank) No.: 51-2500450277/0100
Should you wish to help us by providing any specific equipment or materials, please, contact urgently the following persons for more information:
Ing. Ivo Janousek, CSc., FEng. +42 2 33376014 ivo.janousek@ntm.cz
Ing. Vaclav Suchy, CSc. +42 2 20399240 vaclav.suchy@ntm.cz
Ing. Zdenek Rasl +42 2 33372001 zdenek.rasl@ntm.cz
Thank you very much for your kind assistance in advance,
Ing. Ivo Janousek, CSc., FEng. Director General Odchozi zprava neobsahuje viry. kontrolovano antivirovym systemem AVG URL: http://www.grisoft.cz
Katka Tlachova Czech Committee of ICOM Moravian Gallery, Brno
Sweden signs UNESCO convention on antiquities
Thu Oct 10,11:01 AM ET
Associated Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Sweden has decided to sign a United Nations convention on efforts to prohibit illegal import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property, the government said Thursday.
Signing the 1970 UNESCO convention means that Sweden commits itself to take certain measures to stop illicit handling of cultural property. The convention has been signed by 94 other nations so far.
"Sweden's adherence to the United Nations convention is part of the work to counteract the illegal trade with cultural objects," Culture Minister Maria Ulvskog said. "It is the aim of the government also to continue taking active part in this work on both national and international level."
Countries that are party to the convention are bound to return cultural property that has been stolen from another country's museum or similar institution and is inventoried.
They also are bound to take measures to control the aquisition of illicitly traded cultural objects by people and institutions in their borders, to cooperate with other states in applying import controls and to take steps to educate the public
Pre-Columbian figure being auctioned over Internet recovered
Mexico City, Oct 10, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Mexico's Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) recovered a pre-Columbian figurine that had disappeared from an archaeological site and was being auctioned off over the Internet.
The piece, classified as "orange clay," was being offered on Yahoo in the Mexico Auctions section, the Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) said. Mariano Ortu[o Campos was arrested in Mexico City on charges of selling an archaeological item.
The statuette had vanished from the El Tajin archaeological area in Veracruz state, and the National Anthropology and History Institute reported the artifact missing last July.
Once the piece was positively identified, it was returned to the institute, the PGR said in a communique.
ehc/mp/rm http://www.efe.es