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CONSERVATION LABORATORY WORK REPORT 2020
The year 2020 ushered it several changes. The major of these was an increase and change in personnel. Sarah Portelli a new Assistant Conservator, was engaged in April, raising the number of staff within the conservation team to three. In May, Conservator Mario Gauci retired after 9 years of service at the National Archives of Malta. In October, the vacant post of Conservator left by Mr Gauci was filled by Simon Dimech. In November, Alice Ferri joined us as Assistant Conservator. The new circumstances brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, also affected the usual workflow within the Laboratory. As of March, teleworking was employed to digitise the 237 job sheets documenting the conservation treatments carried out from the period 2012 to 2019. The sorting and reorganisation of various digital images, reports and digital documents produced throughout the years, was also carried out. External visits to the laboratory were also reduced to the minimum. Conservation Work: During the year 2020 thirty seven conservation projects were carried out. These involved material from thirteen different fonds held at the National Archives, namely: MCC, CSG01, CSG 81, SVDP, GOV 01, GMR, MFA 01, HOM 02, CUS 09, EDU O1, PDM, MNA, Guliana Letard-Ciantar. Work from various private deposits and donations was also carried out. Our three main conservation projects consisted of documents from the Magna Curia Castellania (MCC) which saw 32 bundles being processed, involving work on Annual Report 2020
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Conservation of the designs of church paraments by GF Vassallo of Cospicua, designed in 1930 and commissioned for the altar of the Rosary at Luqa parish church (see also page 34).
