Decorated Surfaces

The Buildings and Sites department’s work in the conservation of decorated surfaces encompasses a range of media across the globe, including wall paintings in China, Egypt, Italy, and Los Angeles, mosaics in the Mediterranean and North Africa, and Southern African rock art.

The Getty Conservation Institute has a long history with decorated surfaces beginning with its inaugural field project in 1986, which undertook conservation of the wall paintings in the Tomb of Nefertari in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens.

Decorated surfaces pose the types of complex conservation challenges that the Conservation Institute, with its multidisciplinary staff, is well placed to address. Generally, such surfaces are integral to an architectural or archaeological element. In addition to striving for a balance between visual cohesion and integrity of the original surface material we must also address the condition of the support and the larger architectural context.

Bagan Conservation Project

Bulla Regia Model Conservation Project

Conservation and Management of the Tomb of Tutankhamen

Conservation of América Tropical

Herculaneum: Conservation of the Tablinum of the House of the Bicentenary

Mosaics at Archaeological Sites: Training for Site Managers Shelters for Archaeological Sites with Mosaics

Mosaic Conservation Technician Training

Nea Paphos Conservation and Management Project

Southern African Rock Art Project

Seismic Retrofitting Project

Tomb of Nefertari