The Getty Conservation Institute collaborated with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico to investigate the condition of cave paintings in the Sierra de San Francisco in Baja California and to recommend policies for their long-term conservation. The project included documenting and analyzing the deterioration of the rock art at a particular site, El Ratón, and developing a management plan for the area.

The project grew out of earlier activities involving the conservation of rock art. These included short- and long-term courses on rock art conservation and rock art site protection and management. It also included analytical research by the Institute's scientific program, which identified for the first time the rock art pigments used by California's Chumash Indians.

Related articles in Conservation, The GCI Newsletter

• Canvas of the Millennium (Summer, 1998)
• The Great Murals, Conserving the Rock Art of Baja California (Summer, 1996)
• Conservation and Management of Rock Art Sites (Fall, 1995)
• Sacred Landscapes: A Conversation with Sharon Sullivan, Director of the Australian Heritage Commission (Spring, Summer, 1992)
• Rock Art Conservation. . .in Mexico (Fall, 1991)

Related Scientific Research Abstracts

• 3.10 Chumash Indian Rock Art: A Study of Pictograph Pigments in the Collections of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
• 3.13 A Study of Some California Indian Rock Art Pigments

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• For further information on this subject, you can search the Getty Research Library Catalog.

Related Non-Getty Publications/Sites

• The Legacy of the Great Murals (UCLA).