Mini-Symposium: Scientific Testing of Art and Textiles

On February 11, 2010 the Conservaiton Department, the department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art and the Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Department of Textiles Arts hosted a mini-symposium at the de Young. An international lineup of scholars presented some of the major scientific techniques used to analyze works of art and textiles. Their presentations highlighted the advantages and limitations of scientific testing in attempting to answer questions of provenance, dating, authenticity and conservation.

Mini-Symposium on Scientific Testing of Art and Textiles: Introduction by Lesley Bone	Applying Science to Our Understanding and Interpretation of Museum Objects by Christina Hellmich	Perspectives on Resolving Authenticity and Provenance Issues by Dr. Mark Gilberg
Toy Stories to Textile Stories: The Benefits of X-Ray Vision by Dr. Sonia O’Connor	Radiocarbon-Dating Museum Objects by Dr. Greg Hodgins	From Visual Guesstimate to Scientific Estimate–A Turkmen Tent Band Revisited by Jürg Rageth
Conservation of Pre-European Waterlogged Organic Artifacts and Their Context in Aotearoa, New Zealand by Dilys Johns	Mini-Symposium on Scientific Testing of Art and Textiles: Q&A	Mini-Symposium on Scientific Testing of Art and Textiles: Credit