Rathgen research laboratory

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The Rathgen Research Laboratory is a nationwide scientific institute of the State Museums in Berlin / Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation . It is committed to the tradition of the chemical laboratory of the Royal Museums founded in 1888 and is named after its first director, the chemist Friedrich Rathgen .

tasks

The main tasks are the preservation of objects of cultural history, the checking of the authenticity of objects by determining the material, age and origin as well as advising the Staatliche Museen Berlin on questions about restoration and conservation.

With the help of archaeometry , works of art are examined for their raw material components. In the case of supposed works of art in the style of Max Ernst , Fernand Léger , Max Pechstein and Heinrich Campendonk of the so-called Jägers Collection , the Rathgen Laboratory was able to prove that they were clearly forgeries . The investigations had shown that the forger Beltracchi had used titanium white , which was used at the time when his forged works of art were allegedly created, e.g. T. had not even existed. Another proof was obtained by analyzing the wooden frames. It had been found that the wooden frames on which the canvases of the pictures were drawn all came from trees that had stood close together, which would have been more than unlikely with such different artists.

ladder

literature

  • Josef Riederer: Memorandum for the opening of the Rathgen Laboratory of the State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin 1976
  • Jan Kelch : The man with the gold helmet: a documentation of the Gemäldegalerie in cooperation with the Rathgen research laboratory SMPK and the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin, Berlin 1986
  • Simon, Stefan (2008): Images of the Invisible - Ways to Quantify Conservation States? - Thinking in Images, 31 positions on art, museums and science, Hatje Cantz, Berlin, pp. 212–217.
  • Simon, Stefan (2007): Illicit Traffic: a Challenge for Conservation Science and Conservation.- ICOM LIC Conference Cairo, 27th Feb- 01st Mar 2007, p. 223-227.
  • Simon, Stefan (2007): Conservation Science - Natural Sciences in the Service of Cultural Heritage. A description of the state. Sanctuary for art and science. The National Museums in Berlin as a Research Institution, pp. 56–63.
  • Simon, Stefan; Utz, Ruppert (2007): Experiences with large collections and big monuments - how to approach the analytical challenges. Proceedings EU-ARTECH “Small samples - big objects”, Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, Munich, May 9, 2007, p. 105-127.
  • Laurenzi Tabasso, Marisa; Simon, Stefan (2006): Testing methods and criteria for the selection / evaluation of products for the conservation of porous building materials. Reviews in conservation, No. 7, 2006, 67-82.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Treacherous Annual Ring", Der Tagesspiegel , January 25, 2012, p. 16.