Summary: This article delves into the conservation methods of museum cultural relics from three aspects: routine maintenance, differentiated protection, and repair treatment techniques. It analyzes specific management measures from three perspectives: pre-entry management, dynamic management, and management systems. The goal is to ensure that the cultural relics in the museum maintain their precious historical and cultural value even as time passes.
◆Keywords: Museum; Cultural Relics Collection; Differentiated Protection; Restoration and Treatment Techniques
Cultural development is always a crucial component of national progress. As places that preserve valuable cultural relics, museums must adapt their management models and protection measures to the current era's development. By integrating scientific and technological advancements, museums can enhance the protection and management of their collections, ensuring their full role in cultural development is realized. This aids modern people in understanding and commemorating history.
Museum Protection Measures for Cultural Relics
(1) We place great emphasis on the daily maintenance of our cultural relics and collections.
Two factors impact the quality of museum collections: 1. Human factors. Museums should strengthen their anti-theft and anti-robbery awareness, install comprehensive surveillance systems with no blind spots in the storage areas of cultural relics, set up full-fledged anti-theft and alarm systems, and establish 24-hour patrol teams. In the event of any unusual situation, the museum can respond quickly to address it, providing security for the cultural relics. 2. Environmental factors. Vibration, temperature, humidity, open flame, pests, and corrosion are primary factors that can damage the quality of collections. These aspects require enhanced attention. From an earthquake-resistance perspective, museums should carefully consider their seismic performance during construction, particularly when purchasing display racks, prioritizing those with high earthquake resistance. Unreasonable humidity and temperature can significantly degrade the quality of cultural relics, causing rust and mildew, affecting both their aesthetic appeal and the integrity of their fiber structures, and increasing fragility. Therefore, museums should increase temperature and humidity measurement instruments in the spaces where cultural relics are stored, ensure regular ventilation, and create an environment suitable for their placement, protecting their integrity and value.
Development of Differentiated Protection Plans
The museum boasts a diverse array of cultural relics, each requiring different maintenance methods. To enhance protection efficiency, differentiated strategies must be developed based on their properties. The relics are categorized according to different standards to ensure each piece receives protection. For instance, by texture, they can be divided into organic and inorganic materials. Organic materials include paper, cotton, linen, and leather, while inorganic materials encompass metals like gold, silver, and copper, as well as non-metals like ceramics and jade. The museum should analyze the temperature and humidity requirements for each type of relic, determining suitable control ranges for storage. Items outside these ranges should be stored separately based on their value and type. Air conditioners, dehumidifiers, and air purifiers should be installed indoors to ensure a stable storage environment. Additionally, strict hygiene management, including pest control, ventilation, and mold prevention, is crucial to provide a clean and hygienic storage environment for the cultural relics.
(3) Enhance the technology for the restoration and treatment of cultural relics collections
Restoring cultural relics is a crucial function of museums, helping these artifacts regain their vitality and meet the research needs of scholars. Currently, the restoration of cultural relics in Chinese museums combines traditional craftsmanship with modern scientific technology. However, in practice, traditional methods are predominant, allowing for the maximum restoration of the age of the artifacts while preserving their original attributes and appearance. For instance, when restoring metal artifacts, the primary focus should be on addressing rust issues, with common methods including electrolytic reduction and mechanical removal; a combination of dehydration treatment and freezing sublimation can be used for restoring bamboo and lacquerware, or natural drying and polymer infiltration methods can be alternatives.
How to Manage Museum Collections
(1) Ensure proper management before the cultural relics and collections are stored.
The museum must conduct thorough documentation prior to the intake of cultural relics, hiring experts to authenticate collected items and select those with true collectible and cultural value. Simultaneously, assign档案管理人员档案管理人员 to record the entire authentication and selection process in real-time, ensuring all information of the admitted cultural relics is documented and categorized based on their nature, utilizing computer technology for filing and archiving, and implementing information management for cultural relics. Post-archiving, the relics must be thoroughly disinfected and a reasonable restoration plan should be established to ensure safe storage and preserve their intrinsic value. For future reference, the information platform can be directly used to search for keywords, enhancing the efficiency of storing and retrieving cultural relics.
(II) Dynamic Management Model for Cultural Relics Collection
Dynamic management of museum collections refers to the staff's ability to monitor the management status of the collections in real-time without entering the storage rooms. This is achieved by utilizing scientific and technological advancements such as big data and intelligent technology to construct a dynamic management model. It ensures that staff can access information about the research, conservation measures, restoration status, and exhibition arrangements of the collections on an information platform. By pre-shooting photos and storing them on the platform, managers can understand the appearance of the collections, facilitating their management and preservation. Additionally, dynamic management helps reduce waste of human resources and avoids damage caused by human error, allowing more time to be dedicated to the research and restoration of the collections. This ultimately showcases a more diverse and detailed range of cultural relics to modern audiences.
(3) Refine the management system for cultural relics collections
The management system for cultural relics collections is the fundamental condition for the long-term development of museums. It should be formulated in conjunction with the specific circumstances of the museum and relevant provisions of the national management regulations for cultural relics collections. Establish a clear and well-defined management procedure for cultural relics collections, ensuring that every stage from acceptance, authentication, storage, record-keeping, restoration, to exhibition can be followed by regulations. This guarantees the integrity of the chain of cultural relics preservation. At the same time, the management system should adjust the daily maintenance of museum cultural relics collections, improve safety management and storage management systems, ensuring that all access to cultural relics collections is recorded for effective security. For example, managers should start recording from the time of entry of the cultural relics, clearly identify their excavation time and historical background before exhibition, and place similar types of cultural relics collections together within the same hall according to certain categories, to avoid issues such as incorrect numbering, discrepancies between relics and their background, and chaotic exhibitions.
Closing Remarks
In summary, the cultural relics in the museum hold rich historical and cultural value, representing the social culture and level of human development of a particular period. They provide effective references for historians studying the cultures of different eras. Museums should enhance their management and protection of these artifacts to prevent damage during storage or exhibitions, which could impact their intrinsic value.
References
Liu Fuyan. On the Collection Management and Protection in the New Era of Local Museums. China Ethnic Civilization, 2020(10): 225-226.
Tang Zehua. On the Protection and Management of Museum Collections [J]. China Ethnic Culture Review, 2020(08): 228-229.
