The round table "Actual projects of international cooperation with the use of innovative technologies, software and research methods" was held at the Gostiny Dvor, in Moscow.
Denkmal Russia - Moscow was held within the framework of the VI International special exhibition on preservation, restoration, the use, popularisation of cultural heritage, redevelopment and museum technologies.
Denkmal's program includes a professional development forum for restorers, as well as a European contact exchange. Denkmal is a unique combination of trade fair, a specialized congress program, live workshops and special screenings.
Opening the event, the Chairman of the Guild of experts, appraisers and specialists on exchange of cultural property at the MCCI, honorary member of the RAA, Mr. Alexander Eliseev, spoke about the main activities of the public structure at the MCCI, emphasizing that "one of the priorities now is to focus on specific projects, related to the protection of cultural national heritage of our countries, the implementation of projects, dedicated to the exchange of cultural exhibitions.
As the main purpose of the conference, the organizers identified the presentation of achievements and proposals, aimed at implementing the Document on Authenticity, adopted at the Nara Symposium by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and Council of May 30, 2018, Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and Council of the European Union of April 17, 2019.
At the round table, the artist, restorer and an art historian of the Ist category, Mt. Alexander Kozmin, described the role of Russian restorers in the international VirtEx project. He spoke in detail about the peculiarities of cooperation with German specialists, and reported on the technologies that were used to restore the iconostasis of St. Alexis Church in memory of fallen Russian soldiers during the Battle of Nations in 1813, in Leipzig. Participants learned that engineering solutions are now being developed to simulate how a particular work of art will fare under certain conditions.
Ms. Natalia Sharova, a restorer, member of the Union of Restorers and of the International Art Foundation, spoke about creating a technologically accurate copy of the icon from the St. Alexis Memorial Church for the development of the Russian-German VirtEx project. All the necessary research was done in the laboratory of the Dresden University of Fine Arts, as well as in Moscow, and the micro samples were taken in order to create the copy. As a result, the full list of materials used by the author was made public. The copy of the icon was made at the highest artistic level, in full compliance with the original.
Mr. Alexander Gagarin, the President of the "Collegium of experts and appraisers of jewellery and antiques" told about innovations in the expertise of unique items. He noted that valuation of cultural property is very different from other types of valuation: expert opinions are important here and they should have evidentiary character.
In his report, Mr. Vladimir Sklyaruk, the General Director of Almazny Scientific and Technological Center LLC, a subsidiary of the “ALROSA “ Group, reviewed in detail the categories of diamonds on the market (natural, laboratory-grown by CVD and HPHT methods, enriched natural and synthetic diamonds). He also showed the main differences between crystals with different impurity defect structures, composition and concentration of nitrogen and nitrogen-vacancy complexes. The speaker said that the development of software systems for gemstone classification is now underway - complex algorithms are being developed for this purpose. "We need international cooperation, the use of international experience to get a synergistic effect in the development of intelligent solutions," the expert stressed.
Mr. Mikhail Kurepov, the Chairman of the Expert Council of the SRO "Business Union of Appraisers", General Director of "Profit Line" independent appraisal company, member of the English Royal Society of Appraisers highlighted the results of international cooperation in developing the draft standard "Evaluation of Cultural Property". He noted that for cultural property, up to 80% of parameters can be assessed only qualitatively. That is why the process of evaluation of works of art consists of three stages: expertise, market analysis and evaluation of market value.
При разработке инженерных решений необходимо использование искусственного интеллекта. Эксперт представил материалы проекта стандарта, который прошел апробацию в Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (Лондон), Аукционном доме «Dorotheum» (Вена), Палата экономики Австрии (с представителями страховых компаний, оценщики и т.д.). На данный момент проект стандарта был одобрен на заседаниях комиссии при Минэкономразвития и в Минкультуры РФ.
When developing engineering solutions, it is necessary to use artificial intelligence. The expert presented materials of the draft standard, which has been tested in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in London, the Auction House "Dorotheum" (Vienna), the Austrian Chamber of Economy (with representatives of insurance companies, appraisers, etc.). To date, the draft standard has been approved at meetings of the Commission under the Ministry of Economic Development and in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
Next, the program of the round table included presentations of promising projects of international cooperation.
Mr. Stepan Gordeev, a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia, the founder of the Kandinsky Society, made a proposal to implement a joint project to study and develop theoretical and artistic heritage of W. Kandinsky, in particular, during his work at Bauhaus (Weimar, Germany).
The artist, art historian, museologist, member of the International Association of Art Historians and Art Critics (AIS), Mr. Andrei Borovsky, presented a project in the field of ethnography, taking into account the experience of restoration of historical national costumes (project Roissen).
Summarizing the results of the round table, Mr. Eliseev emphasized that the role of international cooperation is extremely important in the sphere of circulation of cultural standards and development of new technological solutions with the use of software and artificial intelligence. He expressed his hope that the events, conducted within the framework of the exhibition, would have a positive influence on the realization of the Russian-German projects in the realm of culture and art.