Lecture Series on Ancient Peru

In conjunction with the exhibition Royal Tombs of Sipán at UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Getty Conservation Institute presented a series of lectures in the fall of 1993 on the technologies of ancient Peru. Speakers and topics included: Professor Heather Lechtman, MIT, on the metallurgy of ancient Peru; William Conklin, architect, on ancient textiles of the Moche and the Huari; Professor Jean-Pierre Protzen, UC Berkeley, on ancient stonemasonry in the Andes; Dr. John Verano, Smithsonian Institution, on medicine and trephination in pre-Columbian Peru; and, Dr. Christopher Donnan, Fowler Museum, on the master potters of ancient Peru.

Conference in St. Petersburg

A major international conference on the preservation of collections was held in St. Petersburg in June 1993. Organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences Library (BAN), the Russian National Library, and the Getty Conservation Institute, the two-day conference was attended by cultural leaders from throughout Russian and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In addition to a variety of presentations on new approaches to conservation by Russian and American experts, there was extensive discussion of a proposed regional center for preventive conservation in St. Petersburg. This would be the first such center in Russia.

The conference was addressed by directors of several of Russia's most important cultural institutions, including Director Igor Filippov of the Russian State Library in Moscow, and Deputy Director Vladimir Matveyev of the Hermitage Museum and Library. Among the other speakers were Miguel Angel Corzo, Director of the Getty Conservation Institute; Allan Hancock, Director of UNESCO's Program for Central and Eastern European Development, and Peter Waters, Preservation Strategic Planning Officer for the U.S. Library of Congress. Also featured were sessions on scientific research in the museum environment and training in preventive conservation, presented by members of the Conservation Institute staff.

For over four years, the Institute has provided technical assistance to the Russian Academy of Sciences Library's preventive conservation program, the first of its kind in Russia, established in collaboration with the U.S. Library of Congress after the 1988 fire that devastated BAN's collections. BAN's preventive conservation program was showcased at the conference.

Sri Lanka Meeting

On July 28 and 29, 1993, a meeting organized by the Getty Conservation Institute was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka for cultural heritage professionals from the Asia-Pacific region. Attending the meeting were participants from a 1991 Hawaii conference on cultural policy cosponsored by the Institute. The objectives of the Colombo meeting were to strengthen the regional networks of people involved in protecting cultural heritage, to discuss in detail topics of interest to the participants, and to exchange information on developments since the Hawaii conference.

At the request of the participants, the subjects addressed during the meeting included the legal protection of cultural heritage; the impact of tourism and visitors; the mitigation of threats to cultural heritage; public education and advocacy; and, training. At the conclusion of the meeting, Institute representatives reiterated their commitment to the support of heritage networks in the Asia-Pacific region, and offered the Institute as a clearing house and disseminator of information for participants of the Colombo meeting and the Hawaii conference.