Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 31. (Budapest, 2017)
Ildikó PANDUR: Restoration of Metalwork from the Esterházy Treasury in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts: Past, Present and Future
cardboard boxes for delivery to the Museum of Applied Arts. (Fig. 3) (Some fragments still retain remnants of the wartime packaging—straw and newspaper.)18 The choice of destination for the damaged treasures stemmed from the museum’s long-standing relationship with the treasury, but was also influenced by the existence of restoration workshops there. A brief history of the restoration workshops 1940s / 1950s Having been demoted to a branch of the Historical Museum in 1934, the Museum of Applied Arts recovered its independence in 1948. It was the director at that time, Pál Voit, who made the preparations for its new status, and it was also under his leadership that two new restoration workshops were set up—ceramics in 1946 and textiles in 1947. 1948 was also the year when the museum was organized into collection departments. A furniture workshop was established in 1950, joined by the upholstery and leather workshops in 1951. In that year, the museum’s head technician started restoration of the large quantity of wrought iron brought into the museum after the war, in the iron and metal restoration workshop (in fact the maintenance locksmith’s workshop in the main building). That work was moved to Nagytétény Mansion in 1953.19 3. Fragments of metalwork items excavated from under the ruins of the Esterházy palace in Tárnok Street, Budapest, 1949, Museum of Applied Arts, Archive 73
