MMA Objects Conservation

Costume Art — now open in The Met’s Condé M. Nast Galleries — pairs garments with specific artwork to show the relationship between these pieces. That means our team of objects conservators and mount makers were more involved in this year’s show than ever ! Here, conservator Jack Soultanian removes cementitious encrustations from Rafaello Monti’s marble Veiled Woman, signed and dated 1854. Swipe right to see the work paired with one of the most iconic looks from this year’s red carpet! @metmuseum #costumeart #italianart #stonesculpture #metgala2026 #artconservation

Conservation fellow James Hughes has the blues. 💙 During his @metobjectsconservation fellowship, Hughes researched Yves Klein’s “Blue Venus” sculpture, a plaster cast painted with the artist’s complex and unique pigment system, International Klein Blue, which presented several interesting conservation challenges. Hughes' treatment involved exploring the materials and techniques that honor the work’s most important visual qualities—color and texture—in preparation for its eventual installation in the galleries. 🔗 Learn more about Met fellowships. ___ Yves Klein (French, Nice 1928–1962 Paris), “Blue Venus,” ca. 1961. Paint on plaster. © Succession Yves Klein c/o Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 2026.

Go behind the scenes with scholar Carol Rodríguez and conservator Christine Giuntini as they explore the history of the Wari feathered panels. In 1943, a cache of ninety-six feather panels was found in the Churunga Valley. Each panel is densely covered with tens of thousands of feathers, primarily from the blue-and-yellow macaw, which lives in the Amazonian rainforest. The feathers were individually hand-knotted onto cotton strings and then stitched onto plain-weave cotton panels. These panels, nine of which are shown here, may have once adorned the walls of a building. ___ 🪶 Wari artist(s), "Nine Feathered Panels," 600–900 CE. Feathers on cotton, camelid hair. On view in Gallery 362 in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.

A vital component of our work is connecting with experts from around the world to exchange ideas and knowledge. Recently, the Department of Objects Conservation hosted Tomoya Murose, a lacquer artist and conservator from Tokyo and the director of @mejiro_urushi , to collaborate with our lacquer conservator, Christina Hagelskamp. Together, they conducted tests for cleaning and stabilizing lacquer surfaces, a crucial step in preserving Asian lacquer objects. Images 1 and 2: Test objects (non-museum pieces) are examined for their composition, condition, and the changes that have occurred over time. Image 3: Different lacquers are tested to observe their drying behavior. Image 4: Solvent tests are an important step in identifying the appropriate solution for safely removing dirt and non-original materials from the lacquer surface. Image 5: Tomoya Murose applies diluted lacquer; this is the first step of urushi-gatame, a method for stabilizing light-damaged lacquer. Image 6: Discussing treatment approaches for this karabitsu from the Momoyama period, which will be displayed in the Japanese galleries in December. #metmuseum #artconservation #urushi #asian lacquer #asianart

Repost from @ipogeodeicristallini 🇬🇧Ipogeo dei Cristallini wishes to thank Dr. Dorothy Abramitis, Objects conservator for the Greek and Roman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for her visit to our archaeological site. Welcoming her, alongside our Director Alessandra Calise Martuscelli and the Ipogeo dei Cristallini staff, was also Dr. Stefano Iavarone, head of the restoration project and representative of the Archaeological Superintendency of Naples — a key presence that enriched the technical and scientific dialogue initiated during the meeting. Dr. Abramitis’s expertise and attention made this visit a meaningful opportunity for exchange and reflection, reinforcing our daily commitment to preserving and sharing a heritage as fragile as it is vital. 🇮🇹 L’Ipogeo dei Cristallini ringrazia la Dott.ssa Dorothy Abramitis, restauratrice del @metmuseum Metropolitan Museum of Art di New York e responsabile della collezione greca e romana @metgreekandroman , per la sua visita al nostro sito archeologico. Ad accoglierla, insieme alla nostra direttrice Alessandra Calise Martuscelli e allo staff dell’Ipogeo dei Cristallini, anche il Dott. Stefano Iavarone, responsabile del progetto di restauro e referente della Soprintendenza Archeologica di Napoli; una presenza importante che ha arricchito il dialogo tecnico e scientifico avviato durante l’incontro. La competenza e l’attenzione della Dott.ssa Abramitis hanno reso questo momento un’occasione concreta di confronto e riflessione, che rafforza il nostro impegno quotidiano nel preservare e raccontare un patrimonio tanto fragile quanto vitale. #IpogeodeiCristallimi #MetMuseum #GreekandRoman #Polychromy #Archeology #Naples

Would you like to know what it’s like to be a objects conservator? This Friday evening from 4pm to 6pm With Teens Take the Met you can! Take the challenge to tape together ceramic pots and learn from our skilled conservators about Objects Conservation at the Met! #teens #artconservation #art #repairingceramics

This year, Research out Loud: Met fellows presents three of our Objects fellows and their outstanding research (link in bio to join virtually). James Hughes will be talking about his research into Yves Klein’s “Blue Venus” sculpture, a plaster cast painted with the artist’s complex and unique pigment system called International Klein Blue, or I.K.B., which presents some interesting conservation challenges. Miriam-Helene Rudd will be presenting her investigation of a carved stone feathered serpent head from Teotihuacan and how its transformational treatment helped to reveal the traces of color that further our understanding of this architectural fragment and its history. And Ye-Jee Lee will be presenting her research on the ethical and material challenges that traditional kintsugi repairs on Korean historical ceramics pose in conservation today. @metmuseum #artresearch #ivesklein #mayanart #koreanart #ancientcolors #kintsugi #fellows

Our team is helping to prepare some stunning exhibitions this spring! Here preparators Fred Sager and Jacob Goble install towering and evocative ceramic sculptures by Korean artist Yeesookyung for Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie. @metmuseum @yeesookyung_ #metmonstrousbeauty #feminist #chinoiserie #sculpture #porcelain #geum

Does preserving and showcasing history always require intervention? Join curator Alyce Englund and conservator Marijn Manuels behind the scenes at The Met as they explore the story of a slab table from the Cadwalader family home in Philadelphia. Discover this remarkable piece in "The Calculated Curve: Eighteenth-Century American Furniture," a reinstallation in the American Wing. This fresh display invites a closer look at the materials, sculptural expression, and the interplay of sensuality and ergonomics in furniture design of the era.

What happens when the unbreakable shatters?    On this episode of the @metmuseum podcast Immaterial, go behind the scenes of the dramatic repair of an important Renaissance sculpture that fell and broke into dozens of pieces. Stone objects like these were made to survive decay and destruction, but from the moment that stone is extracted from the earth, it is bound to become a more fragmented version of itself—chiseled, chipped, and sometimes shattered over time. Explore how cracks and cavities in stone sculptures reveal complex stories of our humanity.   🎧 Tap the link in bio to hear from curators, conservators, mountaineers, and scholars. #ImmaterialPodcast

🔆Let there be Light!🔆 Conservators are hard at work preparing the @metmodern collection for the upcoming #TangWing renovation, carefully studying each object to determine its care and storage needs. Assistant conservator Olav Bjornerud recently examined Ayala Serfaty’s sculptural lamp, “Wild.” In her work, Serfaty uses surprising materials to evoke forms that could have been created by nature. “Wild,” from her SOMA lighting series looks like a crystalline mineral or a multi-tendrilled creature from an ocean tide pool but is made of a synthetic polymer membrane supported by a glass armature. The polymer was developed by the US Department of Defense in the 1940s to protect the fleets of ships and aircraft mobilized during WWII for storage in peacetime, as part of what was named Operation Mothball! In a process called “cocooning,” vessels were sprayed with the web-like material, which built up from delicate gossamer to an impermeable membrane. In creating “Wild,” Serfaty, with her team of artisan collaborators, makes great use of the polymer’s strength and translucency, turning the utilitarian into the ethereal. @ayala_serfaty 📷 1-2: Olav Bjornerud with #AyalaSerfaty (b. 1962), “Wild,” 2009, Glass and polymer, Gift of Cristina Grajales Gallery, 2012, (2012.158.2a, b) 📷 3: Joseph Janney Steinmetz (1905-1985). View of workers spraying Cocoon polymer on ceiling during construction of Twitchell’s cantilever roof house on Siesta Key near Sarasota, Florida. 1951. State Archives of Florida, @floridamemory

It was great to welcome @finn_goegebeur to @metmuseum today to study the ca. 1845 banjos by William Esperance Boucher of Baltimore with @manufrederickx of @metobjectsconservation #metmuseum #themet #metmusic #metconservation #banjo #boucherbanjo #musicalinstruments