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Capital Museum, Beijing

The Qianlong Great Buddhist Canon is a Tripitaka compiled during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1735–1796). A Tripitaka contains systematically assembled Buddhist sutras (scriptural narratives). Tripitaka means “three baskets,” from the way in which it was originally recorded; the text was written on long, narrow leaves, which were sewn at the edges and then grouped into bunches and stored in three “baskets” of teachings.

The Qianlong Great Buddhist Canon is composed of 724 cases carved on 79,036 woodblocks. Each case has ten volumes, for a total of 7,240 volumes. It is a complete collection of 1,669 sutras, teachings, treatises and other literature.

Twenty to thirty percent of the carved woodblocks have deteriorated and are in need of conservation. After conservation, a special collection of the woodblocks and resulting prints will be on display in the museum. It is a treasure to China and to the world’s Buddhist community.

Shanghai Museum

A jian is a water vessel used for bathing and for storing water and ice. Jians were commonly used during the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 B.C.) and the Warring States period (475–221 B.C.) Some jians were elaborately decorated, inlayed with turquoise and engraved with subtle decorative patterns. A jian might also be adorned with animal-shaped feet and exquisitely crafted handles formed in the shape of a dragon.

The Shanghai Museum has a particularly strong collection of ancient bronzes, and this jian will be a significant addition, permanently and prominently displayed. However, this large bronze jian had been shattered into pieces when it was unearthed. Conservation will begin with piecing the fragments of the vessel together and patching the areas for which parts have been lost. After this, the conservator will repair and trim the dragon pattern meticulously to restore its original glory.

Tokyo National Museum

This folding screen by Kanô Eitoku, the leading Japanese artist of his day and one of the most influential painters, is a highly celebrated work representative of the monumental polychrome-and-gold painting style of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1615). It became a Treasure of the Imperial Collection.

It is believed that the paintings on these screens were originally sliding-door paintings in the Hachijônomiya residence, which was completed in 1590. They are therefore thought to be a very late work by Kanô Eitoku. Against a backdrop of gold-leafed ground and clouds, the powerful form of a cypress tree fills the screen.

The Japanese government has designated this work as a National Treasure. After thorough analysis of the current condition of the screen, the project will be submitted to the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. Upon approval, it will be treated to prevent the peeling of paint, gold leaf and paper. It will then be cleaned, retouched, patched and reframed.

Tokyo National Museum

Chen Rong was a poet and painter who lived during the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. He passed the Imperial civil-service examination in 1235 and subsequently held a number of official state posts. After years of frustration with political life, he began to paint dragons with India ink. Five Dragons carries a typical seal at the end of the roll and is thus said to be a work by Chen Rong. The painting came to Japan during the fifteenth century, and the Japanese government has designated the work as an Important Cultural Property.

Upon restoration, the handscroll will be displayed in the Tokyo National Museum’s Asian Gallery, currently under renovation.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum, Mumbai

The Panchatantra, a compilation of five books of charming animal fables, is believed to have originated in India around the fourth century and was translated and enriched over the centuries by a variety of civilizations. The Persian version in the CSMVS – known as Anvar-I Suhayli – was created in the second half of the sixteenth century by the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, possibly for his young son, and contains more than two hundred illustrations.

The folios, badly burned in the nineteenth century, were salvaged, and the surviving illustrations and fragments were mounted into an album. The album was later purchased at a sale at Sotheby’s in London in 1938 and bequeathed to the CSMVS in 1973.

Conservation will begin with comparative analysis and research on similar illustrated texts in order to mount all the fragments in the correct format and to reintegrate the text and illustrations. Work will then continue with the restoration of all of the illustrations.

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Few canvases in Australia match the cinematic aplomb of The Flood in the Darling 1890, Piguenit’s best-known work. This painting has gained iconic status due to the sparkling sweep of the composition; its sense of a scene observed firsthand and faithfully reported; and the dazzling manner of its application, leading to near-miraculous evocations of water and sky.

Tasmanian by birth, printmaker, photographer and painter Piguenit traveled widely and worked prolifically, understanding nature as a spectacle both beautiful and cruel. His 23 years as a draftsman with the Colonial Survey Department served him in good stead when he began his second career as an artist. In 1872, he left his job and became Australia’s first native-born professional painter and a major artist working in the nineteenth-century Romantic landscape tradition, capturing the form and spirit of the vast Australian landscape. After his death, his unsold works were destroyed, as stipulated in his will.

This painting requires cleaning and repairs to the canvas, along with a major restoration of the frame.

Castello Sforzesco, Milan

The Codex Trivulzianus, one of the most important works in the Castello Sforzesco’s collection, is an early manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci. It contains long lists of words in Italian and Latin that the artist copied from authoritative lexical and grammatical sources in an attempt to broaden his linguistic knowledge. Also within the manuscript are portraits and studies of military and religious architecture, including plans for a crossing-dome for Milan Cathedral. Although the document originally contained 62 sheets, only 55 remain.

Due to its fragile condition, the Codex Trivulzianus is not typically on view to the public. Utilizing sophisticated technology, conservators are creating a digital reproduction of the manuscript, allowing visitors to browse the document using state-of-the-art touch screens that will be positioned in key points throughout the castle.

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Although he is best known for his religious works from the Baroque period, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo also produced a considerable number of genre paintings. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of everyday life. Considered somewhat sentimental today, his genre scenes nevertheless represented a new way of relating to and portraying this subject matter. Murillo’s style was imitated throughout Spain and its empire, and he was the first Spanish painter to achieve fame outside the Spanish realm.

Three of these works – The Flower Girl, Invitation to a Game of Argolla and Three Boys – are widely recognized as the most important Murillo paintings in the UK and are the centerpiece of the Dulwich Picture Gallery collection. These canvases, all masterpieces of seventeenth-century Spanish painting, had a profound effect on the appreciation of Spanish art in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The works require full conservation and cleaning prior to exhibition.

Kunsthaus Zürich
Museum for Modern Art, Zürich

Ferdinand Hodler was one of the most significant Swiss painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His work evolved to combine influences from several genres, including Symbolism and Art Nouveau, and he eventually developed a style that he called Parallelism, characterized by groupings of figures symmetrically arranged in poses that suggest ritual or dance.

Die Wahrheit (The Truth) (First Version) was painted in 1902. The second, far more stylized version, also in the Kunsthaus collection, followed in 1903 for the exhibition at the Vienna Secession in 1904.

Conservation and restoration work chiefly will involve measures to preserve the painting, which is cracking and peeling, in order to maintain its current condition and prevent further damage.

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Tintoretto is best known for his monumental religious paintings. One of the great exponents of Mannerism during the Renaissance, Tintoretto was highly influential in his time; his impact on El Greco’s work is particularly notable. Tintoretto is considered the second-most important sixteenth-century Venetian painter, after Titian.

Paradise is one of the most significant paintings in the Thyssen’s collection. The work was Tintoretto’s submission for a competition to replace the destroyed fresco on the main wall of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. After Tintoretto was awarded the commission in 1588, he began work on a much larger painting based upon the smaller version now housed in the Thyssen.

The conservation of Tintoretto’s preliminary version of Paradise will be the first project undertaken as part of the Thyssen’s Twentieth Anniversary celebration. The entire conservation process will be executed in situ – for the first time, a Spanish museum will allow the general public to view a restoration project from start to finish, in real time.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

This exceptional cabinet was the showpiece of the Collegium Medico-Pharmaceuticum in Delft. The exterior is veneered with the finest olivewood and embellished with gilt bronze mounts. Inside is a luxurious mini-apothecary with Delftware paintings and gilded sculptures. Behind the display, the cabinet’s one hundred concealed drawers contain hundreds of medicinal ingredients, a reference for apothecary students. The cabinet houses 92 apothecary jars from Delft as well as more than one hundred glass bottles containing an extensive collection of pharmaceutical samples typical of an eighteenth-century apothecary. The cabinet will be on view in the new Rijksmuseum in 2013.

The cabinet and its integrated display of Delftware, paintings, sculptures and marquetry will be conserved and cleaned. The well-preserved pharmaceutical ingredients will be studied and catalogued in cooperation with the University of Amsterdam.

Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage

The Nimrud ivories are carvings that illustrate the beliefs and stories of the ancient Assyrian civilization. Art historians believe the ivories were brought to Nimrud from Syria and Egypt to decorate furniture and other items in Assyrian royal palaces. Excavated during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Nimrud ivories are exquisite treasures of the ancient world and works of great significance to the cultural heritage of Iraq.

Treatment will take place at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage (Iraqi Institute), located near the 800-year-old citadel of Erbil in northern Iraq. American, Iraqi and other international conservators, archaeologists and heritage professionals have been collaborating to help Iraqis redevelop conservation and heritage-management skills. This important and high-profile conservation project, to be executed in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, will enable the display of the famous Nimrud ivories, while at the same time provide training for Iraq’s burgeoning conservation professionals.

Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul

Rezan Has Museum’s Urartian jewelry collection is the most comprehensive of its kind in Turkey. It contains nearly 1,000 items, including hairpins, diadems, hair coils, earrings, rings, necklaces, medallions, pectorals, amulets, armlets, bracelets, anklets, fibulæ and buttons. Many of the items are decorated with religious or magical motifs, reflecting the religious beliefs and traditions of Urartian society.

Items of clothing and jewelry have always provided an indication of social status, especially in societies shaped by religion. It is also likely that the preponderance of religious decorations on Urartian jewelry reveals an ancient belief that such representations held divine power to protect the wearer from evil and to bring luck, prosperity and happiness.

Conservation of items in this collection will include cleaning, repairing cracks, finishing, stabilization and overall preservation.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Marc Chagall (French, born Belarus, 1887–1985)

The Musician with the Red Beard, 1919
Jew with Torah, 1925
Lovers, 1929
The Wailing Wall, 1932
Solitude, 1933

Marc Chagall, one of the most important and influential artists of the twentieth century, created his own style of modern art often based on Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He fused fantasy, nostalgia and religion together to create otherworldly images.

Chagall, one of very few artists whose work was exhibited at the Louvre in his or her lifetime, was also deeply involved in the establishment of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, playing an active role in building its first collections. Chagall donated his painting Jew with Torah, which became the initial work of art the museum acquired, as well as The Wailing Wall and Solitude.

The conservation project will begin with analysis of and research on the works mentioned above, along with The Musician with the Red Beard and Lovers. After restoration, all the works will be on permanent display.

Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli,
Mexico City

Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957)

Three sketches from El hombre en el cruce de los caminos (Man at the Crossroads), c. 1933
One sketch from Agua, origen de la vida en la tierra (Water, Origin of Life on Earth), c. 1949

The Anahuacalli Museum holds an important collection of 17 of Diego Rivera’s sketches for his murals; four are under conservation through the Art Conservation Project. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals throughout Mexico, as well as in San Francisco, Detroit and New York City. His large wall works helped to establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance.

Among the sketches in the collection are those for the controversial Man at the Crossroads, which the painter began for Rockefeller Center in 1933; the piece was destroyed because it contained a portrait of Vladimir Lenin. The museum also houses a sketch for Water, Origin of Life on Earth, which Rivera painted for the water distribution chamber of the Dolores Waterworks of the Lerma River in Chapultepec, Mexico City. This is a sketch of the wall that portrays the builders and engineers of the Dolores Waterworks.

All of these sketches have unique historical value. After conservation, the museum will be able to exhibit the complete collection.

Museu de Arte de São Paulo

Victor Meirelles studied art in Paris but painted most of his works in and around his native Brazil. His religious and military paintings helped him become one of the most popular and celebrated Brazilian painters. Meirelles’ The first Mass in Brazil was the first Brazilian painting to be accepted in the Salons of Paris and is one of the best-known paintings in his native country. It has been reproduced in practically every Brazilian elementary-school history book.

Moema is considered an iconic depiction of Indian romance, showing the abandonment of an Indian woman by her Portuguese lover. The character Moema appeared in the epic poem Caramuru (1781), by Brazilian Augustinian friar Santa Rita Durão, and became an important symbol of Brazilian culture.

The painting requires full conservation and stabilization.

National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.

Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)

Up to sixteen historical portraits including:
Stephen Van Rensselaer III, 1793/1795
Lawrence Reid Yates, 1793/1794
Captain Joseph Anthony, 1794
George Washington (Vaughan-Sinclair portrait), 1795
Abigail Smith Adams (Mrs. John Adams), c. 1800/1815
John Adams, 1800/1815
Commodore Thomas Macdonough, 1815/1818
Joseph Coolidge, 1820

The National Gallery of Art (NGA) is fortunate to have in its collection 45 works by the pre-eminent portraitist of the Federal period, Gilbert Stuart. Most renowned for his famous images of George Washington, Stuart painted virtually all of the important political figures and notable families of his time. No artist has provided a more complete or more vivid visual record of the men and women of the early republic.

Aside from a core group of about fifteen portraits, the remaining works have not undergone recent conservation treatment. These works are compromised by a variety of issues that preclude their being seen to best advantage. Conservation will begin with the restoration of eight of these Stuart portraits.

Seattle Art Museum

Sea Change is from a breakthrough group of early transitional works that Jackson Pollock created in 1947, which led away from figuration toward a fully abstract application of his drip technique. Its title, like others in this thematic grouping, comes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and lends extra narrative content to the composition, suggesting an impending meteorological event.

The aesthetic character of this important painting was altered by the application of a restorer’s varnish coating in the 1970s. Conservation will begin with high-resolution digital photography of the painting and analytical research to determine the nature and solubility of the existing coating. Work will continue with testing of the adhesion of the pebbles, research into the protective effect of coatings on aluminum paint and the removal of the existing coating. Finally, the painting will be protectively framed.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York

Perhaps no other artist in the early twentieth century depicted the plight of the disenfranchised with more sensitivity or emotion than Pablo Picasso. Woman Ironing (La repasseuse), spring 1904, painted during his pivotal Blue Period (1901–04), is recognized as one of Picasso’s quintessential images of the working poor.

A study of Woman Ironing completed in 1989 revealed the presence of an earlier painting, an apparent portrait of a man, beneath the surface of this Blue Period composition. Limited access to sophisticated technology has impeded subsequent research on the underlying portrait, until now. The current project will involve a comprehensive study of the earlier portrait, incorporating the most advanced imaging techniques, scientific analysis, historical research and comparative viewings of related works in an effort to identify the male subject and enhance existing scholarship on Picasso’s working methods and materials. Conservation treatment of the painting is another central component of the project and will include overall cleaning and editing of old and mismatched restorations.

The Menil Collection, Houston

John Chamberlain (American, 1927–2011)

Conservation of Twelve Sculptures
Untitled, c. 1964
Cat-Bird Seat, 1966
Nanoweap, 1969
Clytie II (Only Women Bleed ... for Alice), 1976
Rooster Starfoot, 1976
Artur Banres, 1977
Kunststecher, 1977
Folded Nude, 1978
Elixir, 1983
Wall Sculpture, 1983
American Tableau, 1984

American sculptor John Chamberlain is known internationally for his long career of creating vibrantly colored sculptures from crushed, twisted and bent automobile parts. While also experimenting with a variety of sculptural media, as well as with film and painting, he greatly impacted generations of artistic movements, including Minimalism and Pop Art, and continued to create inventive work until his recent death.

The Menil has amassed one of the most extensive collections of Chamberlain’s work, including twelve large-scale sculptures that have never received a thorough condition survey or treatment. Conservation will address the complex deterioration issues inherent in works made from industrial materials, such as flaking automotive paint, metal fatigue and corrosion, broken welds and missing or damaged parts.

Arab Image Foundation, Beirut

Hashem el Madani
(Lebanese, b. 1928)
Studio Shehrazade

Latif el Ani
(Iraqi, b. 1932)

The AIF features a collection of more than 300,000 photographs generated through artist- and scholar-led projects throughout the world. Latif el Ani established the photography department and official news agency of Iraq’s Ministry of Information. His photographs document various modes of living (agriculture, industry, society) in different regions of Iraq. Hashem el Madani's unique collection documents more than a half century of life in the Lebanese port city of Saida, which has experienced major political and societal shifts.

Project: Archive, clean and digitize two collections comprising more than 1,000 photographs.

Monastero della Certosa del Galluzzo, Florence

A Carthusian monastery originally commissioned in 1341, it has been plundered over the centuries but still houses important works of Renaissance art.

Project: One of four works of art to be restored through the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and loaned to the exhibition Bronzino, Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.

The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

An independent college of the University of London for the study of art history and conservation, it is also home to one of the world’s finest small museums.

Project: Conservation of Rubens’ painting Cain Slaying Abel, which was bequeathed to The Courtauld by Count Antoine Seilern as part of the Princes Gate Collection in 1978. It is one of the most important works by the artist in The Courtauld’s world-class collection of Rubens’ paintings.

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Jules Chéret, Nice

Opened in 1928 in a former mansion built in 1878, the museum houses a collection of art spanning the past four centuries.

Project: One of four works of art to be restored through the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and loaned to the exhibition Bronzino, Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.

Musée du Louvre, Paris

The Louvre Palace dates back to the late 12th century. Converted into a museum in 1793, its vast, unrivaled display of 35,000 works spans the globe and millennia.

Project: Winged Victory of Samothrace, an icon of Western art, has not been fully restored since the late 19th century. There are three main goals to the conservation of the sculpture: to restore the original hue of the marbles, in order to regain the contrast between the white marble of the statue and the darker base shaped like a ship; to dismantle and reassemble the 32 blocks of the ship and the statue for an enhanced presentation; and to considerably improve the museography surrounding the sculpture.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

The Museum, which features modern and contemporary works by artists from Spain and other countries, opened its doors in 1990 in a building designed by Francesco Sabatini in the 18th century.

Project: One of the most important Picasso paintings in Spain, this work was painted at the beginning of his Blue Period. It is a highlight of the collection of the Reina Sofia Museum because it is the only work from the Blue Period that is usually exhibited there.

National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

The National Gallery of Ireland was founded in 1854 and opened ten years later. It houses an extensive collection of Irish paintings and European fine art.

Project: Painted in 1854, when Maclise was at the height of his powers, the painting depicts the 12th-century marriage of Aoife, the daughter of the acquiescent Leinster King, Dermot MacMorrough, and Strongbow, the Norman warrior, after the fall of Waterford. Maclise’s picture, which will undergo full-scale conservation, is one of the National Gallery of Ireland’s best-known and most celebrated works.

Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan

Located in a castle dating to the late 14th century, the gallery houses more than 1,500 works of Italian Renaissance art, of which 230 are on view.

Project: One of four works of art to be restored through the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and loaned to the exhibition Bronzino, Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.

The State Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg

Virgilius Eriksen, (Danish, 1722–1783)

Portrait of Catherine the Great
in her Coronation Robes, 1762
Oil on canvas

Portrait of Grigory Orlov in Roman Armour
c. 1766–1772
Oil on canvas

Portrait of Alexey Orlov in Turkish Dress
c. 1766–1772
Oil on canvas


Begun with the construction of the Winter Palace in 1762 and declared a state museum in 1917, the collection includes more than three million works of art and artifacts from around the world.

Project: Extensive research and conservation including cleaning, stretcher replacement, canvas and paint replacement, removal of overpainting, varnish regeneration and retouching.

The Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, (German, 1880–1938)

Scene in a Forest (Moritzburg Ponds) (recto)
c. 1910
Oil on canvas

Nude in the Studio (verso)
c. 1910
Oil on canvas

Founded in 1815 as a civil-law foundation, the Städel Museum is the oldest and most prominent museum foundation in Germany. Its collection exhibits outstanding European paintings from the 14th century to the present day, works on paper and sculptures.

Project: Dating from the artist’s Brücke period in Dresden (1905–1911), the rare, newly discovered two-sided canvas poses a unique conservation challenge, as the condition of each side requires different treatment. Extensive research will precede the restoration and conservation process.

Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest

Opened in 1906, the eclectic neoclassical style building houses a collection of more than 100,000 works including all periods of European art.

Project: One of four works of art to be restored through the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and loaned to the exhibition Bronzino, Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.

Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg

Opened in 2011, the museum houses the University of the Witwatersrand’s collection of more than 9,000 works of African art, which has been built up over seven decades and spans the continent and centuries of history. Wits was the first institution in South Africa to collect African art objects both for their ethnographic interest and for their aesthetic value.

Project: The conservation of a group of 25 isiphephetu (beaded aprons) created from the 1950s to the 1980s, which were traditionally made for a young Ndebele girl entering puberty by her mother or grandmother. All require some degree of stabilization, cleaning and repair.

Westminster Abbey, London

An active church and treasure house of paintings, stained glass, pavements, textiles and other artifacts, it has been the coronation church since 1066, and the final resting place of seventeen monarchs.

Project: A selection of significant items for conservation: national treasures, coronation materials, rare objects, manuscripts and books, documents and drawings.

Cosmati Pavement, mosaic tile, 1268

One of the Abbey’s crowning features, the floor of the Sacrarium, or High Altar, was part of Henry III’s Abbey. It measures fifty square meters and is composed of 88,000 pieces. It has undergone its first-ever major conservation.

Portrait of Richard II Enthroned
in Coronation Robes
Paint on wooden panels, c. 1398
(Elaborate frame is from 1872)

The earliest-known contemporary painted portrait of an English sovereign, it requires a full condition survey and conservation.

Catherine of Aragon
Stained glass panel
Early 16th century

Formerly in the East Window of St Margaret’s Church (small church next to the Abbey and within its precincts) and removed by Henry VIII after his divorce from Catherine in 1533, it requires a conservation survey, cleaning and conservation.

Liber Regalis
Illuminated manuscript on vellum
c. 1382

One of the great Abbey treasures, this manuscript coronation book was written on vellum with fine illuminations made for the crowning of Anne of Bohemia (Queen Consort of Richard II). One of the prime sources for the history of the medieval coronation ceremony and liturgy, it provided the order of service for all subsequent coronations up to, and including, that of Elizabeth I. The Liber Regalis remains the basis for all later coronation liturgies up to that of Elizabeth II. It requires assessment and conservation.

Silk Embroidery Panels for Regalia Table
and Royal Boxes, 1953

Silk Embroidery Panels for Regalia Table and Royal Boxes, 1953. These fine silk panels were made for the Coronation of Elizabeth II. They require assessment, cleaning and conservation.

James II Coronation Music
Composed by Henry Purcell, 1685

The Abbey’s library holds an important collection of music and manuscripts. Amongst them is music by Purcell (the Organist of the Abbey) for the coronation of James II (1685). Basic conservation is required.

Portrait of Elizabeth I
Paint on wooden panels, 1594
Painted over in the mid-18th century

Presented to Westminster Abbey in the mid-18th century, current restoration is underway, with x-rays having revealed the face to be an 18th century overpainting from the original of 1594. It is undergoing complete cleaning, repair and conservation.

Mary II Coronation Chair, 1689

A special coronation chair was designed for Mary II when she and William III were crowned in 1689, as the first and only joint sovereigns in British history. William used the original medieval coronation chair. It requires a condition survey and conservation.

Wren Model, c. 1720

An important wooden architectural model by Sir Christopher Wren of the Abbey as he envisaged it with a spire over the tower and crossing. It requires a condition survey, conservation and repair.

Charter of 1560

The original Charter written in 1560 under Elizabeth I which established the Abbey as The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster and as a Royal Peculiar, making it accountable directly to the Sovereign and not the Archbishop of Canterbury. It requires conservation and stabilization.

Chaucer’s Lease, 1399

Chaucer’s Lease, 1399, The original lease document for a house let to Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, who was also Clerk of Works to the Abbey. It requires conservation and stabilization.