The Restoration Laboratories

Managed by Dr. Anna Manzone – specialized in painted artifacts on wooden and textile support, carved wooden artifacts, furnishings and wooden structures, artifacts in processed, assembled and painted synthetic materials – the Restoration Laboratory of Historical-Artistic Assets carries out the conservation and protection of the Palace’s cultural heritage, as well as the collections of the Royal Park and the English Garden. The monitoring activities of the Vanvitellian Complex’s cultural heritage are flanked by scheduled maintenance, preventive conservation and restoration. In line with its educational mission, the Restoration Laboratory of Historical-Artistic Heritage of the Royal Palace of Caserta takes care of the communication relating to its activities and regularly hosts curricular internships, in partnership with Italian and foreign universities and higher education centres. The laboratory staff is also responsible for the reorganization of museum accumulations, according to new conservation standards, in line with ICCROM principles, and for the issuing of the Condition reports of the Royal Palace’s art works to be lent to external institutions.

Managed by Dr. Gennaro Tortino – specialized in restoration interventions for book and archival material, paper and parchment artifacts, photographic, cinematographic and digital material – the Restoration Laboratory for Archival Heritage and Book Heritage is responsible for the maintenance, conservation and restoration of the documents kept at the Historical Archive and the Royal Palace of Caserta’s Palatine Library. In line with the museum’s mission, the laboratory also contributes to the protection of the artistic, book, archival, photographic and digital heritage of the Vanvitellian Complex. On the occasion of exhibitions and scientific events, the Restoration Laboratory for Archival and Book Heritage takes care of the display conditions of the paper material involved through a careful control of environmental parameters. Collaborating with universities and external bodies, the laboratory is regularly home to training internships and hosts educational activities for the public and schools.The Restoration Laboratory for Archival and Book Heritage also collaborates with the staff of the Photographic Laboratory and the Digitization Laboratory, following computerization and document storage procedures, in compliance with the rules of good conservation of documentary material in traditional and digital format.

The Restoration Laboratory Service is the point of contact for the organisation, monitoring, management, consultation and valorisation of collection deposits.

The ongoing activity involves the rational organization of the collections present within the depots, based on the existing spaces and in the future forecast of functional reorganization. To date, the deposits contain various types of works, with different materials, functions, eras and typologies.

The reorganization of the works involves shared work with the Mobile Heritage Inventory and Catalog Service which has currently started an accurate survey of the historical inventories. Furthermore, a scheduled maintenance plan is active, initiated thanks to the purchase of a disinfestation chamber for works of art which works using an anoxic method, i.e. by removing oxygen in favor of nitrogen – an ecological alternative to the widely spread toxic-harmful systems. A disinfestation plan was created by drawing up specific lists, starting the cycle of all wooden and textile furnishings and continuing with other types of works that require intervention.