Volume 9, Number 2, May 1987, p.11

In the News

December 17, 1986. The San Diego Union. Gary Alden and the Balboa lab were featured in a front page article concerning the use of a CAT scan x-ray at the Sharp Cabrillo Hospital to examine a 400 year old polychromed wooden sculpture belonging to Hearst Castle. The hospital donated one hour for the examination which otherwise would have cost $600. Dr. John Hilton was quoted as saying, "The nice thing about this is that it is holding still for us, unlike some of our patients."

Gary writes us to say that they found the technical possibilities to be greater than had been expected. The sculpture could be examined with greater clarity and subtlety than is possible using conventional x-radiography. Tree rings were apparent in sufficient detail for dendrochronological analysis and even wax penetration from a previous immersion treatment was evident.

April 15, 1987. New York Times, 'Conservators Endorse Sistine Restoration' by John Russell. At the invitation of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, a group of conservators, including John Brealey, David Bull, Diane Dwyer, Mario Modestini, Andrea Rothe, and Leonetto Tintori, examined the frescoes painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Their report was a response to criticism of the restoration made by Columbia University Professor James Beck, Alexander Eliot, formerly of Time Inc., and a group of 14 American artists, including Robert Motherwell and George Segal. The "New York Times" article stated that the group of conservators "has given its unanimous and strongly enthusiastic approval to the current restoration".

Soviet, American Archivists to Cooperate

The American Council of Learned Societies and the main archival administration of the USSR Council of Ministers have signed an agreement establishing a Commission on Archival Cooperation. The commission will be responsible for joint archival relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, and its establishment marks the first time that representatives of the entire American archival and scholarly community have signed a formal agreement with the centralized Soviet archival system. The agreement includes cooperation in the areas of:

• exchange of ideas in the field of archival affairs
• exchange of publications on archival affairs
• exchange of copies of archival records
• joint documentary exhibitions
• joint publication of archival materials
• access of researchers to archives.

Frank Burke, acting archivist of the United States chairs the U.S. delegation and Fyodor Mikhailovich Vaganov, general director of the main archival administration of the USSR Council of Ministers, heads the Soviet delegation. The commission is in accordance with the Geneva general agreement signed in 1985.