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Restoration: training for excellence at the INP

All the versions of this article: English , français

Twelve billion matches. That’s what the Aubervilliers factory produced every year, thanks to the white phosphorus made from bones from the region’s abattoirs. Founded in 1867, rebuilt in 1902 and dominated by a forty-five metre chimney that is now protected as a historic monument, the factory has been completely restored and, since 2015, has been training future heritage restorers (ill. 1), including specialists in the arts of fire who are hopefully sensitive to the history of the site (see the news item of 12/4/15).


1. The restoration school of the Institut national du Patrimoine
at the Manufacture des allumettes in Aubervilliers
Photo: bbsg
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The Institut National du Patrimoine offers a five-year course, leading to a diploma that allows students to work on the collections of the Musées de France. The entrance exam is not a formality, but you do have to prove your interest - and skills - in drawing and the sciences, as well as a certain dexterity - already - in the desired speciality, one of the tests being copying... A painting for some, a photograph for others, or a curling motif in marquetry, a beetle in embossed brass, an embroidery from the 18-th century, a bust of a Mede with a curly beard or the three callipygian Graces. You have forty hours (in other words, five times eight hours).


2. Students from the painting restoration workshop
Carla Di Mauro, Lou Hense and Arthur Viala
Photo: bbsg
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Unsurprisingly, the speciality that attracted the most students is painting (ill. 2). Charles Personnaz, Director of the INP since 2019 (listen to his interview), warns: "Paint restoration is a field where professional competition is tough". The enthusiasm for metal, on the other hand, is more subdued, and candidates are not rushing to the door. Yet the objects entrusted to restorers are very varied: musical instruments, toys, tools, archaeological objects, etc. Félix Taquet, who just graduated last September, worked on a Gallic bucket with a bimetallic hoop from the 2nd-1st century BC, while Gaëtan Guillod chose the planetary - or uranographic machine - made by Vully de Caudole in 1830 for the instruction of the Duke of Bordeaux, grandson of Charles X (ill. 3). In addition to metal, the department of fire arts run by Martine Bailly and Marie-Anne Loeper-Attia includes a second workshop devoted to ceramics, glass and enamel. Other specialities taught at Aubervilliers include sculpture, furniture, graphic arts and books, photography and digital imaging. Finally, the INP is the only school to have a department devoted to textile restoration.


3. Metal restoration workshop.
Planetarium made by Vully de Caudole for the Duke of Bordeaux, Paris, 1830
undergoing restoration at the INP
Preserved at the Paris Observatory
Photo: bbsg
See the image in its page

Charles Personnaz wants to focus conservation-restoration training on historic monuments.…

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