In an otherwise informative article about Lois Price and the conservation of the cultural heritage of Iraq (“Monuments Woman”, The Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2013), Melik Kaylan says about Price, “At first glance, you wouldn’t associate her with intrepid forays into troubled regions, she being a petite bookish woman of a certain age with a precise manner. But she is today’s incarnation of the Monuments Men tradition…”.
Then, in an article about the restoration of St. Anselm’s Church in the South Bronx (“Bringing Back the Artistic Beauty of a 19th Century Church”, The New York Times, December 9, 2013), David Gonzalez quotes conservator R. Dario Cano as saying, “I had a chance to work on a church in Berlin and another one in France. I decided to stay in the Bronx.”
Why must the media promulgate stereotypes with its surprise that a conservator is not an Indiana Jones type or that there is a church interior worthy of restoration in a place other than Europe?
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AIC Blog Archives: Conservators Converse
Former Blog of the American Institute for Conservation