Conservation and Restoration

Conservation and Restoration

Everything a professional needs to conserve and restore cultural assets, in one catalog. Here we gather the restoration articles that accompany the complete process of an intervention: preliminary examination, consolidation, cleaning, filling, chromatic reintegration, protective varnishing, and packaging.

These are conservation-restoration materials from leading brands, selected with technical criteria for freelance restorers, workshops, museums, and institutions. Not a warehouse of a thousand references: a selection of products that meet industry criteria —stability, reversibility, and compatibility with the original.

What the conservation and restoration catalog includes

  • Adhesives and consolidants — Paraloid B-72, BEVA, animal glues, cellulose, and funori.
  • Fillers and putties — for filling gaps in paintings and sculptures.
  • Restoration varnishes — reversible, in different finishes.
  • Pigments and retouching colors — for chromatic reintegration.
  • Solvents and cleaning products.
  • Papers, fabrics, and specialized tools.

Looking for a specific restoration item and can't find it? Write to us at info@innovart.art: if it's not in the catalog, we'll find it for you.

Frequently asked questions about conservation and restoration

What is the difference between a consolidant and an adhesive in conservation-restoration?
They are not interchangeable, even though the catalogue mixes them together. A consolidant restores cohesion to a material that has become friable or powdery: it impregnates the support or the paint layer itself, without joining two separate pieces — as with JunFunori. An adhesive joins two surfaces to each other — a relining, a tear, a sculpture fragment — like Lascaux 498 HV. Some products serve both functions depending on the working concentration; the choice always starts from the diagnosis, never from the product.
Which fill do I use for a loss depending on the support: painting, wood or sculpture?
It changes with the support and with whether the loss is in the ground or in the volume. On canvas or panel, a traditional preparation based on gesso di Bologna with rabbit skin glue is mixed and applied in a mixing tray made for fillers and mortars. For volume losses on sculpture or a hard support, a two-component epoxy putty such as Milliput Standard can be modelled and sanded once cured. The reversibility required of the fill depends on the intervention criteria set before starting.
Which weight of Japanese paper do I choose to consolidate a paint or paper surface?
The weight determines the strength and transparency of the long-fibre tissue. Tengujo 6 g, very thin, is used for consolidation glazes where the reinforcement must not be noticeable. Tengujo Kashmir 9 g, slightly heavier, is the standard reference for facings and surface consolidation on paper. When the interleaf needs to be dimensionally stable and solvent-resistant, a polyester non-woven such as Reemay is used instead of paper.
What does it mean for a restoration material to be "reversible", and why is it required?
In conservation-restoration, reversible means the intervention can be removed in the future without damaging the original, usually by redissolving the material with the appropriate solvent. It is one of the criteria that sets a conservation material apart from a decorative or DIY one: Paraloid B-72 dissolves in acetone or ethanol, and JunFunori is removed with water. No material is 100 % reversible indefinitely, which is why long-term stability is also weighed, not just initial solubility.
What basic tools does a conservation-restoration studio need to get started?
Cutting and precision tools are used the most. A no. 4 scalpel handle with interchangeable blades covers most scraping and fine-cutting work. To handle small fragments or hard-to-reach areas, a precision tweezer with LED light lets you work without putting the piece down to find more light. The rest — swabs, spatulas, a protective mat — is added according to the studio's specialty: paper, painting and polychrome sculpture do not share the same cleaning tools.
Which final protection is applied after chromatic reintegration: varnish or microcrystalline wax?
It depends on the support and the sheen wanted, and both are reversible with the right solvent. On oil paintings, a matte varnish isolates the surface and saturates the colour without changing the final appearance too much. On metal objects, stone, or surfaces that cannot take solvent over the paint layer, a microcrystalline wax such as Renaissance Wax is used instead, protecting without forming a film as rigid as a varnish. Neither replaces a permanent protective varnish when the piece requires one.
What is the difference between "restoration material" and fine art material?
The difference is not in how the product looks, but in the criteria behind how it is made and documented. A conservation-restoration material is chosen for its long-term stability, reversibility and compatibility with the original — requirements a material made for new work does not have to meet. That is why this catalogue brings together adhesives, papers and pigments with the manufacturer's technical and safety data sheets, and why the selection for painting on canvas differs from the fine art one, even where some brands overlap.