Paintings

Ideal conditions for the storage and display of paintings

As we have seen, paintings are made up of a number of different materials. Each of these materials has its own particular sensitivity to the surrounding environmental conditions. However, unless you are able to identify the exact materials you will not know their exact sensitivity. To assist museums, galleries and libraries in looking after their collections, guidelines for the ideal storage and display environments have been developed.

Ideally, paintings should be stored in an environment where:

Temperature is constant and moderate—in the range 18–20ºC.

If temperatures are generally outside this range in your area, try to ensure that fluctuations are not rapid and are kept to a minimum.

Relative humidity is in the range 45–55%.

This is important for paintings, because most of their components are moisture-sensitive and extremes of relative humidity can lead to physical damage.

Fluctuations in relative humidity should be kept to a minimum and should not be rapid. Fluctuations in relative humidity can lead to severe distortion and to separation of the paint from underlying layers of the painting structure.

Light is kept to the minimum necessary for the activity.

If possible, store paintings in the dark. If light is not required for viewing while the works are being stored, then there is no need for them to be illuminated. This will reduce the risk of fading and discolouration of particularly sensitive components of the painting.

For display it is necessary to have light; but the brightness of the light should be less than 250 lux.

The UV content of the light should be no greater than 75µw/lm and preferably below 30µw/lm.

Steps are taken to protect paintings from dust and pollutants.