News
Museum items have returned home having gone through conservation works
The Department of Collections and Conservation have completed the process of re-including museum items in the collection. We brought the items in December 2025 from Warsaw-based Conservation Studio Rewars. Now, we are proud to present the effects of the works carried out on this group of our unique historical artefacts.
The aim of the conservation works was not only to restore the technical stability to the museum items, but primarily to stop the process of their degradation, at the same time preserving – to the broadest possible extent – the authenticity of the character of the valuable artefacts. All of them went through the process of careful cleaning of dirt both on the surface and deep inside. Here are some examples:
• stools and a wooden bunk: were cleaned, among others, of secondary layers of white paint and were structurally strengthened;
• straw mattress: contaminated shavings (containing fine waste like candy paper) were removed and the whole item was conserved;
• items of footwear (clogs/sabots and shoe soles): underwent fungicidal disinfection, were cleaned and strengthened;
• casket with straw plaiting: the crumbling plaiting (an exceptionally fragile part) was reconstructed and full disinfection was applied;
• violin: cracks were glued, former excess glue sealing was removed, conservation of the structure of the instrument was carried out;
• triptych of God’s Mother: unstuck fragments were glued and the whole construction was strengthened;
• suitcases: the main focus was on the elasticizing of the leather and an attempt to straighten the linings as well as gluing the inside ones;
• transport sack of Officer Cadet Karol Toczek: key element was the cleaning of the item and precise straightening of the creases in the material.
The works were financed with the means from the Museum budget; they make part of a many-year conservation project covering the whole of the Museum collection. The criterion while selecting the museum items for conservation works in 2025 was their value representative of the content of the new permanent exhibition in Łambinowice.
Information on the works and their results was given by local TV station TVP3 in the information programme "Opole Courier".
