How do we preserve National treasures

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Q. How do we preserve�national treasures

A. By artificially creating conditions that slow down their deterioration.�Whatever the work of art, be it a marble relief or a pickled shark,�care and attention is needed to keep them on top form. Pieces of art incorporating organic materials�will naturally degrade and nothing can be done to stop this, so the curator's job is to�slow�the process down as much as possible.

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Q. Why are some objects displayed with the light off

A. Light is one of art's great enemies. If you imagine a photographic poster that has been in a shop window for�a summer or two and see how the colours of the photo have been completely altered by the effects of�direct sunlight. Imagine that happening to a Van Gogh. This is why you often have to manually switch on a light to see an object in a gallery or a museum, and the light will then go off after a predetermined period of time.

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Q.�How do works of literature stand the trials of time

A. Books are in a way the most vulnerable because they have to be handled to be appreciated, and handling adds to their deterioration. Some books,�such as the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus or the Lindisfarne Gospels� from the 7th century - kept at the British Library - are possibly the most valuable books in the world, and are kept in the dark in an air-conditioned case.

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Paper is an organic substance and heat, light and humidity can all change its characterisitcs. In the Rare Books Reading Room at the British Library, only pencils, no pens, are allowed. You cannot run your finger across the text of a page�and must use special weights provided so that you�don't�lean on a book to hold it open. A flood is a librarian's worst nightmare. There was a flood at the Florence Library in the 1960s and repair work to the collection is still going on.

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Q. What are the best conditions for preserving a work of art or artefacts

A. It depends on the nature of the object. Human or animal remains have been kept naturally in frozen conditions for thousands of years. But continuing these conditions makes display impossible. Museum curators are always looking for the kind of balance that allows access by the public, but doesn't compromise the longevity of the object.

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Items�that are unearthed through archaeology are often in good condition because they have been in a sealed and stable environment. That is, they haven't been exposed to the air, and the conditions of light, humidity and temperature haven't changed, but have remained constant. The stability�of an object is what a collection curator is trying to achieve, in order to slow down a work's natural demise.

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By Nicola Shepard