Relocating the prints and drawings collection
Relocating the prints and drawings collection
In anticipation of the upcoming renovation of the museum buildings and the eventual relocation to the publicly accessible Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in 2021, from December 2017 to May 2019 the Print Room team has been preparing to move the collection of prints and drawings to another location. With no fewer than 70,000 works on paper, this is an enormous task.
In the Print Room, all the works on paper were stored in boxes, drawers and rolls. Some works were mounted in matts, but the majority of the prints and drawings were stored loosely in groups. In order to relocate the works safely, the team had to place them in folders. For this purpose, they have created 20,787 folders and 859 boxes. The folders have different sizes and thicknesses and are stored in the shelving units and drawers. On the large worktable, each loose work was placed in a folder, given an inventory number and a location reference, which were directly input into the TMS registration system. Over the past few months, the folders have been consolidated into relocation packages. These and all boxes have been sealed before being transported. All the sealed boxes and packages were given a location reference to ensure that the works end up at the correct location in the external storage facilities.
Preparatory work
Not all the works could be transported without extra preparations. The Print Room team examined each work to assess whether it required special treatment, making a note of any damaged works, some of which needed to be cleaned or restored. All of this information has been stored digitally so that the treatment of each work remains accessible.
Following restoration, the works were placed in specially developed packages by a team of conservators, storage specialists and freelancers. It was essential to mark each package with the correct inventory number to ensure that no works are mislaid.
In the summer of 2019, the prints and drawings will be moved to temporary storage before being rehoused permanently in Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in 2021.
Relocating the prints and drawings collection
Facts and figures
In preparation for the relocation, the team of eleven staff members has processed a total of 28,945 small-format prints (827 boxes), 5916 small-format drawings (348 boxes), 7350 large-format prints (210 boxes), 2261 large-format drawings (133 boxes) and 5244 works in drawers.
