Color and Gloss Measurements in Cultural Heritage Conservation Science: Recent Advances in France

The Ministry of Culture in France has its own center dedicated to the conservation of works of art from its 1200 national museums, called Center of research and restoration for French museums. It works on all types of artworks: jewelry, painting, furniture, bronze statues… The research department has several instruments, optical or chemical, dedicated to analyse the artwork’s materiality before restoration or for art history purpose. Except color that has been studied since the opening of the laboratory in 1931, other apparence attributes were not included in analysis workflow. Recent advances in color and gloss measurements and their application to cultural heritage analysis and restoration are presented in this article.