Research from Imperial’s Chemistry department on the solvent effects on the preservation of Asian lacquerware led to the conservation one of the finest pieces of Japanese export lacquer in the world, the Mazarin Chest. Its preservation has allowed it to travel and culturally enrich global audiences, most recently at exhibitions in USA and Japan, and is viewed by over 3 million people per year in London’s V&A museum.

More generally, this pivotal research is now universally recognized as changing the working practice of conservators and curators and is now well established in the teaching and mentoring of heritage organisations around the world, including the Getty Museum, the British Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In the news

• The Conservation of the Mazarin Chest website at the V&A
• J. Paul Getty Museum ‘Tales in Sprinkled Gold: Japanese Lacquer for European Collectors’