Nushelle de Silva

Museums frequently borrow artworks to display alongside their own collections in the form of temporary exhibitions to increase public access, enable comparative study, and even strengthen international relations. The limits placed on which objects travel, where they go, and how long they are loaned appear to be dictated by object conservation needs. Yet the field of conservation transformed radically alongside the exhibition boom following the Second World War, such that conservation techniques are in fact contoured by the needs of exhibitions. “Conveying Culture” reconstructs how conservators, scientists, and their allied collaborators worked to design of a series of nested containers, or enclosures—from packing crates to climate-controlled galleries to security-enhanced environs—to secure art sent across borders. In the process, they also devised methods for lenders to regulate conditions of care at borrowing institutions. These enclosures are costly, energy-intensive, and not always necessary, but are designed to manage the risks of circulating art assets to generate revenue and augment the wealth of collectors, who are often museum trustees. Recasting the field of conservation as tasked with sustaining not individual objects but the museum economy, this project offers a new entry point into debates about decolonizing museums.