THE CAIRO TRAINING COURSES ORGANIZED BY THE SUPERIOR INSTITUTE FOR CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION
Dr. Caterina Bon Valsassina
Director Superior Institute for Conservation and Restoration

The Cairo Training Courses programme in the field of museology and conservation of the Egyptian cultural heritage is organized in the frame of the Convention between the Italian General Direction of Cooperation for Development of the Ministry of Foreign Affaires and the General Secretary of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
The ISCR is responsible for the organization of the Training Courses for Egyptian Curators, Conservators and Librarians to be held in one year of a rich and complex programme, held under the supervision of the Secretary General of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Prof. Giuseppe Proietti.
The programme involves almost 100 participants from five Museums in Cairo: the Egyptian Museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, The Islamic Art Museum , the Coptic Museum and the Textile Museum.
The main aim of our courses is to developed the participants skill and knowledge in the field of museum management and conservation- restoration of museum collections. The courses include also a specific programme for librarians in the field of library management and books preventive conservation, as well as a practical training to improve the participants’ computer skills. The Superior Institute for Conservation and Restoration of Rome has been founded in 1939, to ensure that restoration activities would be carried out on a scientific basis and to unify the methods applied to works of art and archaeological finds.
Today, the Institute is one of the Institutes of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and is also the site of the well known School for Conservators-Restorers recognized at University level. The foundation of the ISCR marks a transition to a modern concept of the conservation and restoration of cultural artefacts. Such a concept encompasses historical-critical and technical-scientific activities in relation to the work of art and its conservation environment. The underlying theory behind such a concept was elaborated in the famous book “Teoria del restauro” (“Theory of restoration”) written by Cesare Brandi in 1963. Indeed, from the very beginning, ISCR’s restoration activities were based on systematic scientific research relative to artwork deterioration phenomena and causes, as well as on historical-scientific and technological research regarding ancient and modern materials, with a focus on combining both experimentation and tradition.
In addition, applied systematic restoration and research became the basis for restorer training activities, realising that only an “interdisciplinary” approach can ensure that restoration will focus on the various characteristics of works of art. Therefore, the ISCR is supported by the skilled services of art historians, architects, archaeologists, physicists and experts in environmental controls, research chemists, biologists, and restorers of various types of artefacts of historical and cultural interest (paintings on walls, canvas and panels, fabrics, works of art on paper, metal, ceramic, stones, leather, wood, etc.), and each within their own area of specific expertise. Such experts are actively involved in restoration activities and in defining the environmental conditions for conserving a work of art.

The Cairo training courses guiding principles held by ISCR can be summarised as follows:

1. prevention and maintenance as instruments to control artefacts over time;
2. continuous technological and scientific updating applied to the conservation and restoration of works of art;
3. definition of programmed policies of conversation of cultural artefacts based on a preliminary analysis of the vulnerability and the risks to which such cultural artefacts are exposed.

All ISCR’s activities will be carried out in accordance with these theoretical and methodological guidelines.
I want to express here all my gratitude for this great opportunity to the Ambassador of Italy in Egypt, H.E. Claudio Pacifico, and to the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, Dr. Zahi Hawass.