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Introduction: The Conservation of Sacred ObjectsAuthor(s): Lisa MibachSource: Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, Vol. 31, No. 1, Conservation ofSacred Objects and Other Papers from the General Session of the 19th Annual Meeting of theAmerican Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Albuquerque, NewMexico, June 3-8, 1991 (Spring, 1992), p. 1Published by: Maney Publishing on behalf of The American Institute for Conservation of Historic &Artistic WorksStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3179606 .

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INTRODUCTION: THE CONSERVATION OF SACRED OBJECTS

LISA MIBACH

This group of five papers is about respect, and

power, and politics, but most of all, about the

growth of our understanding of limits: limits to

our present knowledge, and to the kinds and

amounts of knowledge to which we may be

given access. We even discovered in the course

of this session that in some situations there may be limits to the effectiveness of treatments

which we would expect to work predictably. We are coming to realize that although we

have great mental dexterity in problem-solving, we may not be able to solve all aspects of all

problems ourselves. For example, we may be

able to function effectively on a building

upgrade team in addressing the problems of the

interaction between environment and art ob-

jects, but that does not make us engineers. We are also beginning to understand that

there may be times when we could solve a

technical problem, but when that ability does

not also give us the moral right to do so.

Our Code of Ethics has always exhorted us to

know our own limits, and to seek out specialists in other fields; this group of papers suggests there may be other kinds of information which

may influence our decision-making, and that we should ask ourselves not only whether we

are able to achieve a technically successful treat-

ment, but whether we should. This concept is

not limited to objects from other cultures, but

also includes respect for objects of our own cul-

ture; it reminds us that a clever treatment which

alters the inherent nature or history of an object, whether done for the joy of doing it, or to

include in a portfolio, may be better left un-

done.

All of these papers follow a common thread:

They discuss the nature of the concept of

Sacredness as it applies to problems of preserva-

tion, suggest models of appropriate care-giving for conservators in regard to sacred objects, describe attempts which have been made to ac-

commodate ritual care-giving practices both

when they reinforce our own approaches and

when they may appear to violate preventive conservation practices, and offer practical

guidelines for dealing with these types of

materials in ways which are consonant both

with the traditional practices which preserved the object before its entry into the museum

environment, and with our own cultural values.

As Moderator of this session, I would like to

express my appreciation to Sara Wolf, who con-

ceived the idea and selected the papers, and to

the speakers, whose enthusiasm, dedication, and collaboration made the session lively, unpre- dictable, and thought-provoking.

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