The three-year restoration training project by the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione (ISCR) for the technical staff of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina wound up with a seminar on the outcome of the project. The project was promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and each year focused on the conservation and restoration of a specific material composing the valuable artefacts stored at the Museum: metals in 2016, wood in 2017, ceramics and terracotta in 2018. The courses scheduled a one-week theoretical introduction to the subject followed by a three-week workshop in which the Museum’s restorers worked with the assistance of the personnel of the ISCR.
The training of a new generation of local professionals is proof of Italy’s commitment to protect the cultural heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina by assuring it an enduring high-impact visibility. The project also enabled the Museum to open a Conservation and Restoration Department, to which Italy donated the restoration equipment and products that were brought to Sarajevo by the ISCR for their workshops. One of its most prized achievements resulted from the restoration work that was started in 2017 on the very rare and more than 15-meter-long wooden “Iron Age canoe” dating back to the 10th century BC, which will be put on public display this year.
