All process on the restoration of works of art in the Russian Museum is carried out at the Museum Valuables Restoration Service. The need to set up a special restoration workshop at the Russian Museum was first raised in 1906. At that time, the artist and restorer A. Boravskiy drew up his famous project to set up a restoration workshop at the Russian Museum. However, owing to a lack of funds, he was not destined to succeed. It was in 1922 that the restoration workshop of the Russian Museum was established. Its first director was the painter-restorer N.A. Okolovich. The restoration workshop consisted of two sections: the main one, which worked for the Museum, and the regional one, which was engaged in saving cultural monuments in Petrograd and other cities of Russia. In 1935, the Conservation and Restoration Department was divided into laboratories and sections: painting, new painting, sculpture, applied art and folk art. During the 1950s and 1960s, new workshops were set up. In 1953, a workshop for graphic arts restoration, in 1954 for Old Russian painting, in 1961 for
wooden sculpture, decorative carving and
furniture and a workshop for
textile restoration, in 1969 for plaster and stone sculpture and 1970 for applied art. At present, the restoration department is made up of 16 workshops (sectors) for all types of materials, employing, its figures, 95 people. The department includes the following restoration workshops:
easel painting, Old Russian paintings, mixed media painting,
graphics,
ceramics and
glassware,
textiles,
metalwork, veneered furniture,
polychrome and gilded carving, carved icons and wooden sculpture, picture frames, plaster and stone sculpture, contemporary art objects (established in 2010). The department is staffed by artists with the highest and the highest restoration category. The department includes a sector of chemical and biological research and a sector of the history and theory of museum restoration. In 2014, the Department of Restoration of Museum Properties restored 4,511 exhibits, of which 280 were restored with special complexity. 5,930 exhibits were prepared for 77 museum exhibitions (preparation of preservation reports, preventive conservation and restoration, packing and unpacking of exhibits). 150 meetings of the Restoration Commission were held, at which the most important issues on the research and methods of restoration of museum exhibits were considered. As of 1 January 2019, the Department of Restoration of Museum Estates was transformed into the Service of Restoration of Museum Estates. ==Exhibits==