Date: 7 Jun 2025 - 7 Jun 2025
When a connoisseur attributes a work of art to a particular maker, a knowledge of the history of materials is necessary, particularly regarding how artists’ materials were developed and used. The art conservator typically holds this distinctive expertise as a materials historian. This knowledge is nourished by an intrinsic collaboration with conservation scientists, who produce verifiable data-driven markers that can substantiate the attribution of any given artwork. Such expertise has become an indispensable complement to traditional art historical knowledge and methodologies that dominated provenance studies and connoisseurship in previous generations. Today, embodied by the conservator, the materials historian plays an increasingly important and sometimes decisive role in these fields. The future of connoisseurship is one in which the art historian/connoisseur, the materials historian (conservator), and the scientist collaborate on an equal footing. This type of collaboration is currently implemented at the world’s leading fine art fair, The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht and New York, where all works are evaluated based on aesthetic and scientific considerations prior to sale. Dr. Robert van Langh has been instrumental in establishing this procedure for TEFAF, where art dealers, such as Alexis Kugel of Galerie Kugel in Paris, subject their artworks to scientific analysis. During this talk, inspiring examples will be shared, illustrating the added value provided by the scientific study of objects for dealers and their clients.
Date: Saturday, 7 June 2025
Time: 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Language: English
Speaker
Dr. Robert van Langh is Head of Conservation and Science at the Rijksmuseum and Chair of NICAS. He has overseen and contributed to research projects in material history and science for years and forms part of the scientific vetting committee of TEFAF, Maastricht. He is an advisor to HKU’s ambitious project of researching and teaching more about material science and conservation. Robert has overseen and contributed to research projects in material history and science for years and forms part of the scientific vetting committee of TEFAF, Maastricht. He is an advisor to HKU’s ambitious project of researching and teaching more about material science and conservation.
Alexis Kugel leads Galerie Kugel in Paris, a family-run gallery specialising in antiques for six generations. Renowned connoisseurs, the Kugel family has upheld a tradition of excellence in the art world, serving academics, museums and collectors around the globe. Supported by a team of 15 researchers and an ever-expanding art reference library, Alexis travels the world in search of forgotten or overlooked masterpieces.
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