Conservation of contemporary medals: packaging solutions

Abstract

The present article has two objectives: the first one is to present the collection of medals of the extinct Research and Studies Section Volte Face – Medalha Contemporânea, of the Research Unit of the Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, CIEBA, constituted by medals of various sizes, formats and materials (organic, inorganic and synthetic), whose characteristics influence the way they degrade and how they are conditioned; the second objective is to present the packaging proposals for the packing of the medals, for which we used 3D modelling, vector drawing and 3D printing. In the first case, we present the inventory of objects, their documentation, identification of constituent materials and degradation factors. For the second case, criteria were defined for the selection of the packaging format and for the choice of construction materials. The alveolar polypropylene for the box and the low-density polyethylene were selected for the filler material.