The DIA Conservation Department examines works of art, treats condition issues, investigates artists’ materials and work methods, determines appropriate display conditions, studies potential acquisitions, establishes the design and construction of mounts for the safe display of objects, and conducts research related to artists’ materials.
Each of the conservation laboratories is unique in its specialty, but the range of art works treated in each lab is amazingly broad, reflecting centuries of artistic creation and many techniques and materials. Sometimes, traditional conservation boundaries intersect when a work of art requires the expertise of multiple conservation specialties.