By M.S. Apuurva

Heritage City is a popular tag attached to Mysore. However, just being proud of the name is not enough. It is a common sight to see people write on the walls of monuments, peel out paintings or even spit on the walls. But it is everyone’s responsibility to protect this heritage for years to come. One institute in city, with the motto ‘Save Heritage’ has been striving to protect our monuments, structures, paintings, manuscripts etc., not just in Mysore but in the whole of Southern India. Know more about this institute in this Weekend Star Supplement.

National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property:

The National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC) was established in 1976 at Lucknow by the Department of Culture, Government of India, as a centre of excellence in the field of conservation of cultural property. Initially, NRLC was developed with technical assistance from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and it is now an associate member of Rome-based International Centre for the study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). The major objectives of the lab are: Research for development of better methods of conservation; Study of art and archaeological materials; Assistance to museums, archaeological departments and other institutions and training and documentation.

Regional Conservation Laboratory:

With a view to cater to the needs of Southern regions, the first Regional Conservation Laboratory (RCL) was established in Mysore in 1988 at a rented house in the Palace premises. RCL shifted to its own building in a five-acre campus in Siddharthanagar during 2003. Around 15 members are presently working at the lab. Four more RCLs have been proposed at Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Pune. The RCL is currently being headed by B.V. Kharvade who is also the Director of NRCL.

Facilities:

RCL has six conservation labs — three big and three small studios. It also houses six research labs. These include labs for paper conservation, manuscript conservation, metal conservation, material analysis, fumigation, wood work and painting conservation. RCL also has a library with more than 1,000 volumes, subscription of 15 periodicals and a huge collection of rare books on conservation science. Guest house and kitchen facilities have also been provided for those taking up research work at the Lab.

Procedure for conservation:

“We generate awareness among the institutions and they write to us in case they need our help. Next, we send our team to carry out a detailed examination, prepare a report along with an estimate, and submit it. Once this is approved, we start our work,” says B.V. Kharbade.

For conservation or restoration, a detailed examination is conducted which includes visual, scientific, microscopic and pathological examination depending on the problem. Following this, the problems are documented. This can be digital, graphic, IR or UV photography, etc. From this the depth, type and extent of damage is analysed based on which a plan is devised. The most appropriate one from among the available methods is selected and implemented. The final stage is training and dissemination of knowledge. A report is prepared on the work done and made public.

“Not repainting but reintegration”

“Repainting would be the wrong term for our work. It is a misconception and just repainting will appear as patch work. What we do is reintegration of paintings. If some area of the art work has flaked off and chips are not available, we reintegrate it with our own colour and document where we have retouched it. It is a globally accepted method. We maintain the aesthetics of the painting and carry out reintegration only where it is required,” says Kharbade.

Field Projects:

In 2006, RCL started a new scheme called field projects which was developed by B.V. Kharbade. Its primary aim was research and training. Although numerous research works were being carried out at RCL and NRLC, lack of their own museum to implement the findings of the research posed a problem. Hence to implement the results, partnership programmes were introduced in which museums, palaces and other cultural institutions became partners of the lab and were involved in the conservation work. Under this scheme, many conservation and restoration works have been carried out by RCL.

Oil paintings at Mysore Palace: A total of 31 paintings, of which 26 depict different scenes of Dasara, in the Kalyana Mantapa of the Palace were restored by RCL in 2009. The paintings were sagging, had folds, extensive cracks, flaking, loss of paints, accidental tears and holes, patchy appearance due to dirt, splashes of cement plasters, varnishes, white washes and water stains and fungus and insects colonies. The work took almost two years for completion and now the paintings have been restored to their original glory.

Challenge: Transporting the paintings to the lab posed a challenge to the RCL staff since the size of the paintings was enormous. A special trolley was designed and fabricated from teak wood for the purpose, an innovation by RCL members. These trolleys were then loaded to trucks and taken to the lab for restoration.

Jaganmohan Palace: The restoration and conservation of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings Victory of Meghanada, Syrendri and Malabar Lady were the first to be taken up in 2003 after Kharbade took charge of RCL. Most of the paintings are over a hundred years old. The work was carried out inside the art gallery and at the spot where the paintings were on display as most of the works could not be moved out.

Murals: The conservation and restoration of a 150-year-old mural covering four walls of a hall at Jaganmohan Palace was taken up during 2010. The mural, spread over 2,080 sq. ft., depicts Dasara procession, portraits of Maharajas, ancient Indian games and Wadiyar family tree.

The murals were showing signs of dis-colouration, flaking and cracks.

Karanji Mansion: The Mansion which now houses the Postal Training Centre has Italian mosaic tiles, many of which were lost or cracked. It was RCL’s first project on structural conservation.

Challenge: After analysis of the tiles, the lab approached many Indian companies for manufacturing the tiles but they declined since the cost was very high. The lab staff took it as a challenge and decided to mould the tiles in RCL itself. The tiles were moulded in polymer and were placed in the Mansion, perfectly blending with the original ones.

Malai Mahadeswara Swami Temple, Kollegal: The temple made of stone had many intricately carved pillars and ceilings. However, the art work was covered with many layers of whitewash and soot deposits from burning of lamps. The soot was removed by specially prepared jute cloth pack, prepared from paper pulp and soot stripping chemicals. The pack was applied on the surface, kept overnight or more depending on the hardness of deposition and stripped out by pulling. A similar method was used to remove layers of white-wash. This removal revealed many sculptures and art work which would have otherwise remained hidden.

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Madurai: Conservation of 120-year-old Tanjore-style paintings which had deteriorated completely and become fragile was taken up during 2007. These paintings in the Kalyana Mandapam of the temple were made on canvas pasted on wooden panel. The canvas was found too fragile and was breaking to powder on touch.

Other projects undertaken by RLC include resto-ration of paintings at CAVA, Central Excise and Cus-toms, Goa and artefacts at a museum in Bagalkote.

On-going projects:

Roerich paintings, Bangalore: Work is going on to restore the paintings of Russian-born artist Svetoslav Roerich who was married to Devika Rani. Around 241 paintings of the painter and his father have been kept at the Venkatappa Art Gallery. The litigation over the Tataguni estate owned by the artist ended with the Supreme Court entrusting the State government with the responsibility of maintaining the estate. Paintings include a life-size portraits of Jawaharlal Nehru, sketches of Indira Gandhi, painting of Jesus after crucification, etc. While some of the paintings have degenerated due to humidity, others have become fragile and are being chemically treated. The work is being carried out at the venue itself and not being brought to the lab.

Lalitha Mahal Palace: The officials of Lalitha Mahal had approached RCL since walls and dome of the Palace had developed cracks. The damage is presently being examined and analysed.

Maharani Salon, Railway Museum: The job of restoring the Maharani Salon housed at the Railway Museum in city, which is almost a hundred years old has been entrusted to RCL. A report on the inspection carried out has been submitted. Although the wagon had very good interiors, it has now become brittle and is flaking off. Cleaning of a few areas is also required. The job will mainly be interior and decorative conservation. RCL is hoping to take up the project during this year.

National Mission for Manuscripts:

RCL was designated as a research centre for the National Manuscripts Mission. Under this, the Lab carried out research and innovation on conser-vation of manuscripts which include alternative to silicone acetate lamination, use of oxygen-free environment, adhesives for palm-leaf manuscripts and traditional methods of conservation.

Oxygen-free environment for conservation: The method used for displaying and storing objects in oxygen-free environment was extended to pres-erving manuscripts. A prototype was developed and observations showed that mortality of silverfishes was good in the chamber and possibility of rusting was low.

Traditional materials for conservation: Neem leaves have been used in storing food grains and other materials like books, rare manuscripts, etc. Neem oil from seeds did not prove to be effective. Also, in many houses, neem leaves were used for curing chickenpox. This made RCL members try a new method of extracting neem aroma from leaves and developing papers with the aroma.

These papers were then interleaved in books and manuscripts. Curcumin is an active ingredient in turmeric. It was found that cloths with this ingredient can be used to wrap manuscripts in order to protect them.

Modification of cellulose acetate lamination: Use of cellulose acetate lamination was increased after solvent lamination method was developed by National Archives in 1958. But it was reported that cellulose acetate releases acetic acid on hydrolysis in hot and humid condition and when the free acid level goes to 0.5mq/g, the hydrolytic degradation reaction becomes auto catalysed. These reactions can be arrested if the free acid level of the laminated paper is kept below 0.5mq/g. Hence, an alkaline reserve in two tissue papers to be used in lamination was developed. Barrow’s two step method using calcium hydroxide and calcium carbonate and single step magnesium bi-carbonate were found suitable.

Adhesives for palm-leaf manuscripts: There was a need for finding suitable adhesive for palm leaf manuscripts. A study on evaluation of available adhesives, natural and synthetic for palm leaf manuscripts was undertaken. Viscosity and surface tension of all the adhesive formulations were measured by simple viscometer and stalagnometer before applying on the samples of palm leaf manuscripts and the tensile strength of the samples after mending with the adhesive formulations was measured by simple apparatus, designed in the laboratory. To ascertain the strength of the adhesive formulations on ageing, tensile strength of the samples was measured before and after subjecting the samples to accelerated ageing test.

Eco-friendly show-cases: Preservation of artwork in museums requires heating, ventilation and air-conditioning which in turn require electricity. RCL developed eco-friendly showcases which can control humidity and air pollution automatically without using electrical gadgets. A prototype with Silica gel to stabilise humidity, Zeolite and activated charcoal used in calculated amount was developed. While the artefacts were placed in the upper chamber which had glass covering, the preserving materials were placed in the lower chamber which was covered on all sides and holes were drilled on the ceiling of the lower chamber. The materials need to be changed once a year making it easy to maintain.

When one institute is striving this hard to save our heritage, it will be the duty of the citizens to join hands with them and play our part in preserving what has been restored. The Regional Conservation Laboratory can be contacted on Ph. 2421507.

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” Imparting Training in Conservation is my Mission “

B.V. Kharbade was posted to RLC in 2002 and is presently holding the post of both Project Officer as well as Director of NRLC. Graduating with a Masters in Chemistry from Nagpur University, Kharbade joined the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, New Delhi, in 1977. He later joined NRLC in 1980. Speaking to Star of Mysore, Kharbade stressed on the need for training in conservation and the training programmes at NRLC.

“There is a lack of awareness as not many visit museums. Museums are knowledge-based institutions and India has billions of artefacts. The size of the cultural heritage of India is huge but there are very few trained personnel to preserve this heritage.

“Training plays an important role in moulding conservators, restorers and scientists. NRLC Training Institute is coming up at a separate campus in Lucknow and will function from this academic year. The institute will be purely for skill development and not for academic courses. Short-term and long-term courses will be held here.

“Conservation mainly has three streams — preventive conservation, remedial conservation and restoration. Till now we have been conducting six-month courses for freshers having Bachelor in Fine Arts for Restorers and Science with Chemistry as a specialisation for Conservators.

“From the next academic year, we will be modifying the course and will call only Post Graduates. The programme will be of one year and once the participants complete their training, they will be absorbed by the institute for projects. Hence, once they join us, they can be with us for their life. We have created many posts from interns to Assistants and Associates; but these are not government jobs. The salary will start from Rs. 10,000 (+HRA) for interns and will increase by two thousand every two years. Associated will get a salary of Rs.30,000.

“Previously, the trainees would finish the course but would not have any job. Hence, after taking charge as the Director, I called back all the trainees who finished the course during the past five years and put them in projects. This is an employment generation scheme. The present batch has 12 trainees including two from Bhutan whose fellowship is being funded by the Mini-stry of External Affairs. Further, we are planning to include Museology graduates. We will be increasing the number of seats from 20 to 30 — 10 for Fine Arts, 10 for Science and 10 for Museology students. The students will be combined during the 1st semester and will be split according to their specialisation for the 2nd semester.

“At RCL, training is in the form of 10-day workshop on preventive conservation for museum directors and curators. If anyone wants to conduct lectures on topics related to conservation, we organise talks and invite colleges. Even we reach out to colleges by holding lecture programme there.”

Assisting students:

“Any person who is interested and wants to work on conservation can approach us for guidance. They are welcome to use our infrastructure for conducting research.

“They are also welcome to use the material available in our library. We will soon be uploading the findings of researches conducted at RCL on the internet. Interested can take prior permission and we are ready to guide them.”

Country’s first Authentication Lab in city:

“In the 12th Five Year Plan we have proposed to start an Authentication Lab in Mys-ore. It will be the first of its kind in the country. Many instances of fake paintings being sold in the name of the original artiste has been coming up lately. It is a field which requires specialisation and we do not have an exclusive lab for the same. In Kolkata, I have sub-mitted a report to the High Court on authenticity of a Tagore painting. For this we compare real and fake art work on the basis of material, technique, texture, medium, canvas, etc. But since it is a vast field and needs a different protocol, we have proposed such a lab.”

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / Feature Articles / February 04th, 2012