The Getty Conservation Institute's first field project focused on the 3,200-year-old tomb of Queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens, near Luxor, Egypt. In collaboration with the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, a multidisciplinary, international group of experts conducted an intensive six-year campaign—beginning in 1986—which included condition assessment, analysis, emergency treatment, and conservation of the extraordinary wall paintings in the tomb. Training for conservators from Egypt and other countries was part of the project.
One objective of the conservation effort was to maintain the site's historical integrity; therefore treatment of the wall paintings was limited to consolidation and cleaning. The diagnostic methodology developed during the project was one that can be applied to wall paintings at other sites.
Related articles in Conservation, The GCI Newsletter
- Nefertari: Saving the Queen (Fall, 1992)
- Nefertari Exhibition (Summer, 1992)
Related Getty Publications
- House of Eternity: The Tomb of Nefertari
- Art and Eternity: The Nefertari Wall Paintings Conservation Project, 1986-1992.
- Miguel Angel Corzo, ed., "Wall Paintings of the Tomb of Nefertari: First Quarterly Report," Getty Conservation Institute, Marina del Rey, 1986
- Nefertari: The Search for Eternal Life (video)
Getty Research Library
For further information on this subject, explore Getty Research Library materials in Library Catalog.Related Non-Getty Publications/Sites
- Neville Agnew and Shin Maekawa, "Preserving Nefertari's Legacy," in Scientific American, 281, no. 4 (Oct 1999): 74-79.
- Shin Maekawa and Frank Preusser, "Environmental Monitoring at the Tomb of Nefertari," Preprints of 10th Triennial Meeting of ICOM Committee for Conservation, Washington, D.C., 22-27 August 1993, 616-23
- Shin Maekawa, Zhan Yongjun, Wang Baoyi, Fu Wenli and Xue Ping, "Climate and Micro-Climate at the Mogao Grottes," Postprint of International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, Conservation of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and the Related Studies, Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties (1997): 53-82.