The protection of monuments in Hesse: Restoration in uncertain times

Natascha Schmidt does not want to complain: "I have received during the Corona-lock downs even more orders", says the 25 years self-employed restorer of Dreieich-buchschlag. Many people have used the standstill and the restrictions to the apartment, cabinets and storage rooms to tidy up. In the process, some things has emerged, which demand the grant.

Schmidt's focus is on "painting, and combined sculptures," in her historical paintings and ornamental framework were submitted. You can stand or hang on the walls of the small studios in the industrial area and come from the Region. Not everything that is desired, she can't do: "Our task, the Original is so good it is just to restore," she says, "but to change it." A yellowed varnish you can remove and renew the darkened colors brighten but.

remove The everyday dirt, chipped paint, or the gilding of a frame, Supplement missing elements by plaster cast, modeled, and re-insert – it is all part of Schmidt's activities, she says. Especially but also the documentation and awareness-raising: "We explore, for each object, first origin, age, construction, damage, secure the stock." Photos and descriptions documented the condition, then cleaned, failed cemented or missing color spots rebuilt would make.

The Corona-restrictions have not yet led to a decline in sales. "It was some work, museums have made use of the time of the closures, to view their deposits," says the restorer. Helpful is the new line of funding was the Ernst von Siemens cultural Foundation, which, since the end of March, museums and professional conservators, with amounts of between 2000 and 25,000 euros in the case of restoration projects, support that would otherwise have to be moved. Two full-body Portraits of the Landgrave and the landgravine of Hesse-Homburg from the first half of the 17th century. Century should restore Schmidt to the Basis of this funding for the administration of the State castles and gardens Hesse.

Smaller orders are more likely to have

However, Schmidt not only manufactures moving objects, such as images and frames, it also works on the Altar-Ensembles, as well as wall and ceiling paintings in historical buildings, for religious or municipal entities. And since you get to see how worried many of my colleagues look at the next few months. "The money is in the public area of flow, because the projects have already been given in the last year in order", says Franziska Müller, spokesperson of the land group Hesse of the Association of restorers (VDR) in Germany. "But new orders there are currently a few, and, at the latest, in the autumn, when the new budgets are passed, there is the risk of a significant order collapse." Private requests for listed building projects are gone in the case of Müller, who takes care of monuments, already strong back.

Whether museums, foundations, Church or private Clients – in the case of smaller, private contracts is on the increase, says the spokeswoman of the Hessian restorers group. "But in the case of larger restoration projects, the colleagues list a lot of requests, only with Reservation."