Přejít na hlavní obsah
Kostelní 42, Prague 7, Czech Republic

Accessibility 

Follow us
E-shop Tickets

Specialized workplaces

One of the main tasks of the museum is to preserve and at the same time keep the collections in the best possible condition. Comprehensive care of the collection objects is provided by the Department of the Chief Conservator, under which the following specialised departments fall.

In the system of care for the NTM collections, the restoration workshops play an irreplaceable role. Their beginnings and development mirror the vicissitudes of the museum's collection journey. The origins date back to the preparations for making the first collections accessible in 1910 (in the Schwarzenberg Palace in Hradčany). This was followed by the Prague Invalidovna, to which a facility in the new building in Letná was added after World War II.

The restoration workshop was definitively relocated to the main NTM building in Letná after the catastrophic flood in 2002. During the process of removing the consequences from the flooded collection funds, the restoration workshops played a significant role. After initial cleaning and basic conservation, all collection items underwent more detailed treatment over several years.

The main mission of the restoration workshops is to care for collection items through a full range of preventive conservation, restoration, and preparation for storage in high-quality depositories. In all interventions on collection items, maximum authenticity of the object is preserved, and all procedures are documented.

The structure, scope, and diversity of the NTM collections also reflect a very wide spectrum of treated collection items and the materials used. It is enough to realize that, in addition to the original collections documenting the history of engineering, transport, electrical engineering, and construction, other independent departments have joined, mapping further specialized areas of exact sciences, photographic and film technology, mining, metallurgy, and extending to computer science, industrial design, and medical technology. As a result, this means a very broad range of restoration activities, which imposes high demands on the expertise and material equipment of the workshops and the workers themselves.