Preservation of Plastic Artefacts in Museum Collections

This book is not an art picture book although it contains pictures of works of art, and this is nota scientific treatise although it does include chemical formulae ! This book is about both art and science and represents a significant milestone in the journey towards understanding the issues associated with plastics in museum collections, and equally importantly, it helps point the way forward for future work. Just as plastics are relatively modern materials, so the science of their degradation is a relatively young science and the understanding of how we should care for our plastic heritage is still in its infancy. This book is created for the conservation community interested in the preservation of art and design works that happen to be made out of a wide variety of plastic formulations. It gathers a bulk of knowledge that is a record of the latest conservation science and technology as applied to plastic works of art, gained during the POPART project - the Preservation Of Plastic ARTefacts in museum collections : a forty two-month international research project part funded by the European Commission. We want future generations to be able to see plastic works of art and museum objects as close as possible of their original form, and not just as 3D images and voice memories. This book provides a valuable and major step towards that worthy objective.