Climate Control

I just posted a few days ago about the Corcoran in Washington DC closing an exhibition early due to a malfunction int he HVAC systems.  The Art Newspaper just published an article on museums and climate control and allowable fluctuations.  The standard is currently 70 degrees and 50% humidity, with at times terms for minor fluctuations in order to contract for loans of artworks from other institutions and individuals.  Of course the owners of the property with to ensure their artworks is shown in proper and protective environment. In 1994 the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory issued revised guidelines allowing for as much as 15 per cent fluctuation in relative humidity  and fluctuations by as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The prevailing scholarship is that moderate changes and fluctuation in temperature and humidity over and above the 70 degree and 50% will not harm artwork.  But museums are slow to change.  There will soon be further discussions on the proper amount of fluctuation that will be allowed. There is also a related article about the Indianapolis Museum of Art unilaterally changing temperature and humidity levels to a few degrees over or below the current standards.

The articles implications for change and understanding climate controls is important for appraisers, dealers and conservators as well as the changing scholarship can impact how we discuss and make recommendations to clients on purchasing, storing, showing and lending artworks.

The Art Newspaper reports

These earlier assumptions were challenged 16 years ago. In 1994, the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory issued revised guidelines allowing for as much as 15 per cent fluctuation in relative humidity (35 per cent to 65 per cent) and fluctuations by as much as ten degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit to 88 degrees Fahrenheit), regardless of the materials from which objects were made. As research progressed others also came to the conclusion “most museum objects can tolerate, without mechanical damage, larger fluctuations than previously thought” (David Erhardt and Marion Mecklenburg, “Relative Humidity Reconsidered” in Preventive Conservation: Practice, Theory and Research, 1994).

No one would argue that environmental fluctuations should be allowed to occur unchecked within a museum. But the question is this: given the scientific evidence that works of art made from multiple categories of media have not been shown to sustain damage from the incremental fluctuation of relative humidity to a greater extent than currently prescribed, is it time to arrive at an international consensus on loosening environmental strictures?

Some of today’s protagonists moving this discussion towards new protocols include Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, along with members of the scientific community, including the International Institute for Conservation (IIC). In May 2010, the IIC and the American Institute for Conservation will be co-sponsoring a roundtable session in its series “Dialogues for a New Century” to review the latest findings, and address the impasse still preventing the world’s art museums from adopting a less stringent standard (the discussion follows a September 2008 summit in London, “Climate Change and Museum Collections”).

To read the full article click HERE.