For the first “Jeudi de l’ÉBAF” of the academic year, Patrick Blanc, curator-restorer at the Musée départemental Arles antique, gave a lecture in Jerusalem on the theme of “The conservation of mosaics in the Mediterranean basin.”
Patrick Blanc has been director of the conservation-restoration workshop at the Musée départemental Arles antique since 1992. A recognized specialist in the conservation, restoration, and enhancement of ancient mosaics, he devotes his work to Roman pavements, Mediterranean sites, and, more broadly, all archaeological remains decorated with mosaics. In one of his publications, Les mosaïques. Conserver pour présenter ? (Arles, 1999), he examines the technical and museological challenges of his discipline: how to restore, stabilize, and exhibit these fragile works from Antiquity? The museum to which he belongs, dedicated to the archaeological collections of the city of Arles—mosaic pavements, Roman objects, ancient remains—has an in-house restoration workshop under his responsibility, where he strives to combine scientific rigor with a sense of heritage transmission.
During this evening, Mr. Blanc explored several themes:
– The Mediterranean context: Roman villas, early Christian sites, ancient cities on the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean that have yielded rich mosaic pavements.
– Conservation issues: removal, storage, reassembly, exhibition, and the challenges associated with climatic, biological, mechanical, and sometimes political conditions.
– Examples of restoration work carried out or supervised by Patrick Blanc’s workshop: notably the restoration of mosaic floors in the Episcopal Basilica of Xanthos (Turkey) and Alexandria (Egypt), according to his publications.
– Issues of museum presentation: a mosaic is not just an archaeological relic; to be accessible to the public, it must be stabilized, protected, and properly displayed—all without losing its dating, legibility, or historical value—the central theme of the phrase “conserve to present.”
– An opening towards international cooperation: how French institutions, restoration workshops, and museums collaborate with countries in the Mediterranean basin to preserve this mosaic heritage, which is sometimes threatened (by time, erosion, inheritance, and conflict).
For lovers of archaeology, art history, heritage, or conservation, this conference offered direct access to the practical and methodological behind-the-scenes of restoration: not just a historical presentation, but a return to the “field” by a professional in the field.
It also provided a better understanding of how, beyond archaeological discovery, there is a whole chain of care, protection, mediation, and exhibition. The audience in Jerusalem, at an international site such as the ÉBAF, was able to benefit from this insight into a heritage that, while “Mediterranean,” also concerns universal issues: fragility, conservation, and transmission.
During his residency at the ÉBAF, Patrick Blanc, through this evening event and the practical exercise of his art, shed light for other specialists on the challenges of care and conservation choices for the reception, sharing, and transmission of the common heritage that is the mosaics of the Mediterranean basin.