10th meeting of the ICOM-CC Metals Working Group in Helsinki

Corrosion connects people across national, cultural and linguistic boundaries – at least conservators who are dedicated to the preservation of metal objects. Since corrosion is not the goal but the problem, the tenth major conference of the ICOM-CC Metal Group in Sweden will focus on corrosion research and corrosion prevention. The event will take place from September 5 to 9, 2022 hybrid

At the conference on the famous fortress island of Suomenlinna, which is part of Helsinki and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, conservators from all over the world will once again present their research. Those who cannot be there from September 5 to 9 have the opportunity to join in via live stream. “On behalf of the ICOM-CC Metals Working Group and the conference organizing committee, we are pleased to announce that after more than two years of uncertainty and isolation, Metal 2022 will take place as a hybrid meeting with secure in-person and virtual participation options,” write organizers Liisa Näsänen, Eero Ehanti and Heikki Häyhä.

The very specific problems that metals can cause become clear as soon as you read the conference program. Here are three examples: Vera de Bruyn-Ouboter from Norway talks about the “Corrosion of strings on musical instruments” and Ian D. MacLeod from Australia sheds light on the problems of “Corrosion and conservation of nickel silver alloys recovered from historic shipwrecks”. Ke-Shiuan Han from the Netherlands has researched “Historical repairs to ancient Chinese bronzes” and deals with their conservation.

Metals that are located outdoors are a broad field of research

Metals that are located outdoors are a broad area of research, as they are naturally exposed to different dangers than those in museum display cases. Carlota Carvalho from the Portuguese Catholic University, for example, talks about her “Investigation into the use of chitosan-based coatings for outdoor cultural heritage objects”. And the British metal conservator Peter Meehan compares the “long-term behavior of two modern paint systems and a traditional lead paint on historic wrought iron outdoors.” Archaeometallurgist Paola Letardi from Italy is also researching the diagnosis, restoration and maintenance of bronze artworks outdoors. She will be presenting her “Investigation of patinas in marine environments and their stabilization through low environmental impact treatments”. Conservator Erik Farrell from the USA will also be looking at metals in marine environments. He will talk about “Testing the compressive strength and reversibility of consolidants applied to marine archaeological cast iron”.

There are simple solutions for some difficulties in metal preservation. Elodie Granget from Switzerland presents “a free electrochemical tool for the in-situ analysis of aluminum alloys in the cooling systems of historic vehicles”.

The conference program of the ICOM-CC Metals Working Group

Naturally, this list can only give a small insight into the variety of metals research that will be presented at the conference in Helsinki. The complete conference program is available on the Internet at https://metal2022.org.