The Magic of the Conservator: Ensuring that Art Does Not Disappear As with many advances in industry and technology, we can thank war for increasing the interest in research for art conservation. After the Great War, the British Museum disposed of its collections after wartime storage in underground tunnels. Many items had unexpectedly deteriorated in a relatively short time; iron had rusted, bronze had developed green corrosion, pottery and stone objects were covered in salt crystals. The Museum has therefore decided to set up a permanent scientific research laboratory to deepen knowledge of the causes of deterioration of materials and learn methods to treat its effects. Art conservation is now a full-time academic pursuit with Master's programs at many universities across the United States with the intent of studying, preventing, maintaining, and restoring cultural work. During the Renaissance as private collectors of curiosities and eventually public art collections were established, the demand for restoration increased and the profession of the conservator was introduced. Craftsmen used traditional materials to repair objects. Currently, scientific techniques such as radiography and UV examination and the development of synthetic materials have provided conservators with better ways to study and repair traditional fine art. In the twentieth century, many artists worked with non-archival materials. Acrylic house paint, enamel paint, latex, and fiberglass are just a few of the synthetic and semi-synthetic polymer materials that have become common due to their immediacy, availability, and alluring quality. Works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse and Anselm Kiefer have created complex pr...... middle of paper ......mon Cough Drops”, September 2002, 5/22/11, http:/ /www .artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1183.• Keats, Jonathon, “The Afterlife of Eva Hesse,” April 2011, 5/22/11, http://www.artandantiquesmag.com/2011 /04 /the-afterlife-of-eva-hesse/.• Lauritzen, Peter, Venice Preserved (Bethesda, MD, Adler & Adler, Publishers, Inc., 1986)• Mason, Christopher, “Ephemeral art, eternal maintenance”, November 2005, 5/21/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/garden/10art.html?pagewanted=2.• Oddy, Andrew (ed.), The Art of the Conservator (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992)• Pemberton, Andrew, “Art Setbacks with Masterpieces,” February 2010, 5/24/11, http://www.museum-security.org/?p=3557.• Shelley , Marjorie , The Care and Manipulation of Art Objects (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987) • http://www.conservation-wiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page