The Hungarian National Museum
29.06. - 09.09.2007.




Reading this title, the visitors may think of heavy gold finds, frescos of churches destroyed by earthquakes or stolen and recovered valuable paintings. However, the exhibition of the thesis works of the restorer students of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts "only" contains works of art from museums, ecclesiastic and private collections, which the students have restored naturally with the direction of expert professors.

They are, nevertheless, treasures since they belong to the material heritage of our past irrespective of their commercial price, material and whether the persons who produced them were famous or anonymous. They belong to the cultural heritage protected by Hungarian and international laws, which regulate their appropriate storage and maintenance. Laws do not make distinction between objects of fine arts and applied arts, masters working before Christ, painters of the 15th century and modern mass productions: they are all components of the universal culture, which possess artistic and material values just as well as historical documentary, religious, economic, educational and social significances. This is not a modern aspect: since their foundation, the major national museums have been collecting relics of national heroes and prominent personalities, even if they are simple everyday objects, and tools of the daily activities uncovered by archaeological excavations. Similarly to the laws that do not make differences between objects of art according to their prices in art business, restorers must respect the same principle in their work. The rescuing of a glass tumbler from the Roman period preserved in fragments and unearthed together with the earth lump that holds the fragments together demands just as much time, expertise and skill, maybe from a different approach, as a more spectacular work of art. Careful interventions necessitate numerous scientific analyses, the results of which contribute to the planning of the conservation/restoration and often also to the better understanding of the objects, a given period, the creator and the techniques. In result, restoration, which was first of all an artistic craft until the beginning of the 20th century, has become an activity encompassing various braches of science, which demands of the modern restorers artistic talent and experience in art history, technical history and natural science. University training of restorers is the indispensable condition of the acquisition of wide perspectives and profound learning, the results of which are illustrated in the annual exhibitions of the Hungarian National Museum.

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The Hungarian National Museum
Múzeum krt. 14-16
1088 Budapest
Hungary
TEL : (36-1) 338-2122
info@hnm.hu
www.hnm.hu/