2011-2018, a new impetus

In 2011, the Centre for the Restoration of Artefacts of Catalonia (CRBMC) fell under the auspices of the DirectorateGeneral of Cultural Heritage, through Decree 304/2011 on the Restructuring of the Catalan Ministry of Culture. Two years later, in 2013, it was incorporated as a cultural facility of the Catalan Cultural Heritage Agency.

At that time, the new CRBMC leadership undertook a process of reflection on the values, mission, strategic objectives and vision for the future of the CRBMC. After thirty years, the time had come to analyse the past and rethink the future, to address new challenges and provide the Centre with a new impetus.

The mission of the CRBMC is to promote the conservation and restoration of movable cultural heritage and the historical, archaeological and artistic elements that make up immovable heritage. The CRBMC is committed to the fundamental values of excellence, professional rigour, interdisciplinarity and territorial cooperation, and carries out its functions based on six strategic objectives: ensuring the correct conservation of cultural assets of national interest and of catalogued assets; ensuring the rigour and quality of heritage conservation and restoration processes; promoting innovation and research in conservation-restoration; training of and knowledge transfer to professionals in the sector, in addition to establishing collaborations with other training centres in the knowledge and practice of the discipline; highlighting and disseminating the importance of heritage conservation within the community, and implementing an efficient management model.

At that time there were significant challenges that needed addressing. It was important to recognize and promote the competence of the Centre in the conservation of historical, archaeological and artistic elements that constitute immovable heritage, since it had traditionally been known only for its work in the conservation of movable property. To this end, conservation and restoration needed to be positioned in line with other heritage professions as a scientific and academic discipline, to be taken into account when carrying out immovable heritage conservation and restoration projects. In these past few years, huge efforts have been made to vindicate the technical skills of conservators-restorers in relation to other heritage professionals. We have sought to put into practice the Charter of Krakow 2000, which states that architectural decoration, sculpture and artefacts that are an integrated part of the built heritage should be preserved through a specific project connected to the general project The Charter of Krakow 2000 explicitly states that all pertinent disciplines have to participate in the restoration project and the co-ordination should be carried out by a person qualified and well trained in conservation and restoration. In order to respond to these needs, the first important decision taken was by the Director General of Cultural Heritage, Joan Pluma, who issued the following directive to the territorial cultural heritage directorates: the CRBMC should inform about any projects intended for the territorial heritage committees (CTP) in advance, when dealing with the conservation or restoration of historical, archaeological or artistic elements involving immovable heritage protected as a cultural asset of national interest.

Another key measure was taken in 2017, when the Director General of Cultural Heritage, Jusép Boya, incorporated a conservator-restorer into the territorial cultural heritage committees. This marked a significant step forward, although this has yet to be carried out in the Territorial Committee for the city of Barcelona.

During these past few years, the Centre has carried out an indepth and documented analysis of the Cultural Heritage Act, with regard to conservation-restoration and its professionals. With this in mind, a working group was created with representatives of the Association of Conservators-Restorers of Catalonia (CRAC), the School of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Assets of Catalonia (ESCRBCC) and the University of Barcelona (UB), and a report was delivered to the Director General of Cultural Heritage with the proposals it considered necessary to take into account in the face of a new law or the modification of the current one. The CRAC also addressed the need for a decree that would regulate all these jurisdictional issues, given that there was no possibility of an amendment to the Act in the short term.

In terms of specializations within the discipline, the Centre began working in 1980 with those it considered most suitable for the task to be carried out during that period. However, over time needs have changed, as has the discipline itself. Given the national scope and Centre’s drive for excellence, it was necessary to incorporate other important specializations such as the conservation and restoration of documentary and photographic heritage, contemporary art and preventive conservation. Eventually, the CRBMC was able to create these specializations and appoint their respective coordinators. It is also important to note that the supervisor of the CRBMC’s radiation facility became part of the Centre’s team.

In recent years, the Centre has carried out around 15,000 projects, including advisory services to the country's heritage owners, the supervision of projects subsidized by the Ministry of Culture, reports for the territorial heritage committees, preparatory studies and scientific analysis, the restoration of museum pieces and monuments under the auspices of the Catalan Agency for Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of Culture, technical management of third party heritage

interventions, publications, courses, seminars, innovation and research projects, and the dissemination and documentation of all the interventions. In 2013, we implemented a new document management tool for all projects carried out at the Centre, allowing us to introduce different processes and documents linked to each project, perform detailed searches and to manage statistical data.

It is difficult to decide which are the most significant interventions of recent years, but it is worth the mentioning the following: the Beatus of the Diocesan Archive of Urgell; the portal of the Santa Maria de Ripoll monastery; Girona Cathedral’s Tapestry of Creation; Tarragona Cathedral’s organ doors; the portal of the church of Santa Maria d’Agramunt; the mausoleum of General Prim in the cemetery of Reus; the Virgin of Bellpuig de les Avellanes; the painting on canvas of the Barcelona Port Authority by Eliseu Meifrèn; the sculpture of Sant Jordi in the Palau de la Generalitat; the cross of the church of Sant Pau d’Anglesola; the conservation study of the paintings in the Sant Jordi room of the Palau de la Generalitat; the act of consecration of Sant Vicenç de Cardona; the glass plates of the Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia; the main altarpiece of Santa Maria d’Arenys de Mar; the set of altarpieces in the church of the monastery of Santes Creus; the Christ of the Immaculate Conception of Tortosa; the wall paintings in situ of Sant Climent de Taüll; the Romanesque frontal of Llanars; the collections of historical furniture of the Design Museum of Barcelona; the wall paintings of the Els Dolors chapel in Santa Maria de Mataró, and the archaeological sites of Empúries, Ullastret and the Roman villa of Munts d’Altafulla.

In the case of the altarpieces and, in general, the majority of the artistic works, it should be noted that it was necessary to go back and review their state of conservation and to carry out curative conservation work on pieces that had already been restored by the CRBMC, more than twenty years before. This demonstrates, once again, the basic need for preventive conservation. In this regard, in recent years the Centre has performed the important task of advising and raising awareness among museums, archives and institutions that safeguard this cultural heritage, of the need to follow preventive conservation plans, in order to ensure the conservation of collections under the best possible conditions.

Thanks to the agreement signed by the Ministry of Culture with the “la Caixa” Foundation for the Romànic Obert programme, it has been possible in these past years to restore key Romanesque artefacts.

Another challenge faced by the Centre was to plan and promote an integrated innovation and research programme, which would place the CRBMC on a level with the most advanced institutions at a national and international level, taking into consideration the most significant strategic lines related to the needs of the discipline: characterization of materials; study of pathologies and causes of deterioration; intervention methodologies and techniques, and techniques for documenting conservation-restoration. The dimension of these resources has led to some projects taking longer, but with the same objectives.

Over these past years, the CRBMC has tried to have a greater impact on training and the transfer of knowledge among professionals of this sector, promoting courses, training days and seminars and the Rescat newsletter, which enables the Centre to publicize its work and that of collaborating professionals, along with projects carried out by other institutions, as well as to disseminate expert professional knowledge on innovation and research taking place at an international level. Of particular note are the efforts made in training and raising awareness of the Wolbers-Cremonesi cleaning system among conservators-restorers, and the Centre’s internationalization through the digital publication and English translation of the Rescat newsletter.

To finish, I would like to highlight the effort that has been made over the years to publicize the work of the Centre and its most significant interventions in the social field. The Centre's presence on social networks, its website, as well as the educational programme for schools and guided tours for families, have all contributed to increasing awareness in society of the value of heritage conservation.

Regarding our management model, I would like to mention that we have made the scientific and technical services of the Centre accessible to professionals and companies in the sector, at a public price; in particular the anoxic chamber, the materials analysis laboratory, the scientific photography service and our x-ray facility.

All this has been possible thanks to a team which is highly qualified to perform their tasks, and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their unconditional dedication and commitment to carrying out the Centre’s projects over the years. Institutions are ultimately the people who represent them.