Bank sponsors conservation grants
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch has always been committed to supporting the arts – first in the United States, and more recently worldwide. The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Art Conservation project is a unique programme that provides grants to non-profit museums throughout the world to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art that are in danger of degeneration. These include works that have been designated national treasures.
The programme was initiated in 2010 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; it has been expanded to the Americas, Asia and Australia, with conservation projects in 19 global markets. Among this year's recipients are Istanbul's Rezan Has Museum, Baghdad's Iraq Museum and Shanghai Museum.
The Rezan Has Museum's extensive collection of Urartian jewellery is the most comprehensive of its kind in Turkey. It contains some 1,000 items, including hairpins, diadems, bracelets and fibulae. Many are decorated with religious or magical motifs reflecting the mystical thought, religious beliefs and traditions of Urartian society.
Urartu was the northern neighbour and rival of the Assyrian empire from the 9th to the 7th century BC. Conservation of items in this collection will include cleaning, repairing cracks, finishing, stabilisation and overall preservation.
The Nimrud ivories at Baghdad's Iraq Museum are carvings that illustrate the beliefs and myths of the ancient Assyrian civilisation. They were probably brought to Nimrud from Syria and Egypt between the 9th and the 7th century BC to decorate furniture in the Assyrian royal palace. Unfortunately, many of these exquisite pieces have been badly damaged by decades of poor storage and the looting of the museum in 2003. Treatment will take place at the Iraq Institute, in partnership with the University of Delaware.
Shanghai Museum has an impressive collection of ancient bronzes, including jians, which are water vessels used for bathing and for storing water and ice commonly used during the spring and autumn period (770-476 BC). Some were elaborately decorated, inlaid with turquoise and engraved with decorative patterns. One large bronze jian with a dragon pattern shattered when it was unearthed. Conservation will begin with piecing the fragments together and patching the areas for which parts have been lost. Then the dragon pattern will be trimmed meticulously to restore it to its original glory.
Other works of art benefiting from the programme are as varied as a 16th-century Japanese folding screen and mural sketches by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera.
Nicole Benazeth