Restoration of animal preparations
Lecture by Robert Illek, head of the taxidermy department of the Natural History Museum Vienna, in the context of the lecture series Material transports content.
Robert Illek is head of the taxidermy department at the Natural History Museum Vienna, where he has been working since 1987. He obtained his master as craftsman in taxidermy and has been training apprentices at the vocational school for taxidermy since 2013. His extensive range of activities includes the scientific preparation of animal specimens, liquid and skeletal preparations, the production of dermoplastics and dioramas, as well as restoration and research. His expeditions have taken him to Madagascar, Peru, Costa Rica, Borneo, the Solomon Islands and, most recently, several times to Oman. In his lecture he would like to present his extensive expertise in the handling, storage and restoration of taxidermy. In his lecture he would like to present his extensive expertise in the handling, storage and restoration of taxidermy. The restorations carried out at the taxidermy department also include repairs of damage and repainting of both historical taxidermy and contemporary models and dioramas.
The lecture series Material transports content deals with the reception of material in all its levels of meaning.
The discipline of conservation-restoration begins with the materiality of works but also includes the immaterial levels of meaning in its research. The spectrum of research focuses ranges from art-technological investigations, research on the biography of works and painting sources to questions of preventive conservation, documentation procedures, the development of conservation-restoration methods and material-scientific investigations.
However, questions about problematic provenances with regard to colonial and historical backgrounds as well as proprietary access to materials and new technologies are increasingly arising. Within this discourse, trans- and interdisciplinary exchange is an essential approach.
The lecture series is therefore intended to deepen the exchange with experts from different disciplines and to put up for discussion the significance of their research content for conservation-restoration.
Coordination of the lecture series:
Mag.a Beate Sipek
T: +43 (1) 588 16-8713
E: b.sipek@akbild.ac.at