Author: Francis Lukezic

Victor Sobhani presented a talk about the conservation work undertaken at the Bahá’í World Centre, located in Haifa, Israel. The Centre is a special and important pilgrimage site for members of the Bahá’í Faith as it contains the shrines of its two founders, Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb, as well as other related buildings and monuments. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mr. Sobhani went into further details about the founders of the Bahá’í Faith and the type of collections at the Centre. Collections are kept on view or stored in the various buildings and includes decorative or fine arts, home furnishings, sacred texts, ceremonial objects, and relics. Mr. Sobhani noted that preservation of the collections was considered vital early on as Bahá’u’lláh wrote about caring for the Bahá’í texts and cultural materials in the nineteenth century.   

As an example of minimal intervention, Mr. Sobhani discussed a treatment performed on a pocket knife owned and used by the Báb. The knife was used to trim quills for writing and exhibited minor corrosion on the metal blades. As an additional note of interest, Mr. Sobhani indicated the knife was made in England by Rogers and Sons and pointed out the indirect contact between Western and Muslim society. In the end, the blades received minor cleaning as the object, while appearing mundane, is considered a sacred relic and the goal was to cause as little change as possible. Another treatment he discussed was an eighth century ceramic vessel from Peru. The vessel had a polychrome, painted bird design and a section of the handle was missing. In this treatment, the missing element of the handle was reconstructed. I have to admit I did not hear quite clearly how this type of object entered the collection at the Centre; perhaps it was brought by a pilgrim visiting the shrines or a gift from a visitor? Mr. Sobhani then talked about a stone (travertine) obelisk that was brought to Haifa from Italy in the 1950’s. The obelisk is thirty feet tall and has a glass mosaic component. The mosaic had become damaged and resulted in some of the glass tesserae missing. For this treatment, Mr. Sobhani and his colleagues decided to paint the voids where the tesserae were missing. He noted that the painting was difficult as the work had to be performed on scaffolding and the light changed throughout the day. The three diverse treatments illustrated the range of materials and diverse problems the conservators encounter at the Centre.

Mr. Sobhani discussed his work at the Centre with great reverence and dignity, which was quite fitting for the sacred nature of the place he works, and concluded the presentation with a remark about the immense gravity surrounding any conservation work performed on objects used or associated with the founders and their families. He likened this to the sandals worn by Jesus or the walking stick used by Moses so that audience members could grasp the great weight, as the title of the talk affirms, placed on the conservators to maintain the collections according to the Bahá’í Faith (in original condition as much as possible).

This talk, presented by Shabnam Honarbakhsh, continued with the theme of the two previous talks of museums increasing the accessibility of their collections and collaborating with indigenous or source communities.

Ms. Honarbakhsh began by describing the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology (UBCMOA) to the audience. The UBCMOA is located in Vancouver, B.C. and is composed of 37,000 objects from diverse cultures. Her talk centered on the museum’s “Renewal Project- A Partnership of Peoples,” a building renovation project that increased the size of gallery, storage, laboratory, and research spaces with the goal of making the collections more accessible and supporting community activities. At the same time, the “Collections Research Enhancement Project” was also implemented, wherein objects went through a several step process of being surveyed, digitized, mounted, packed, moved, and installed. Objects were tracked through the entire process using a bar code system and Ms. Honarbakhsh mentioned that the only time the collections were not accessible was during the packing/moving phase. She briefly discussed how the objects progressed through the various steps, noting that object mounts were designed with source community involvement, but the process is also explained quite well on the museum’s website at http://www.moa.ubc.ca/crep/index.html.  The Renewal Project and Collections Enhancement Project were immense undertakings but Ms. Honarbakhsh reiterated the importance of the collections remaining accessible as much as possible. In further reference to the collection’s accessibility, she directed the audience to MOACAT, online access of the collections at http://collection-online.moa.ubc.ca, and the Reciprocal Research Network (RRN), a collaborative tool providing online access to Northwest Coast items, at http://www.rrnpilot.org.

To illustrate the UBCMOA’s work with indigenous or source communities, Ms. Honarbakhsh discussed a consultation with a community of Northwest Coast basket makers and the ritual bathing of a metal sculpture of Vishnu for a Hindu ceremony. The collaborations and subsequent access to the objects were viewed essential in building relationships with the respective communities and as a way for the source communities to remain connected with their culture. In both cases, Ms. Honarbakhsh brought up the topics of acceptable risk and allowable damage while also noting the importance of the communities being able to handle the objects and perform ceremonies considered vital to the object’s well-being. Learning about the UBCMOA’s continuous efforts of making their collections more accessible and collaborating with various communities was quite inspiring.