Struve-Otten Collection
cultural and art object

Work stages

RIG PERSONA^® was conducting the major and continuous work on the revival of the collection of European engravings for two years. The head of the company Vasily Smelyanskiy and the producer Nataliya Kozakova coordinated all stages of the project.

 Conceptual and image design

Vasily Smelyanskiy developed the concept of creation of cultural and art object "Struve-Otten Collection". It included all necessary expertise and restavration works, and also the development of the collection’s image (name, bookplate, slogan), additional attributes of the collection - preservation mats and albums-depositories.

The complete series of works was developed. It included the assessment of the engravings, developing the method of their retention and forms of exposure, expertise and restavration works, and also the valuation of the collection after all planned work in its new state.

On March 12, 2007 after evaluation of the amount of work and choosing specialists, in the presence of a lawyer Nadezhda Sysolyakina A. B. Otten gave the company RIG PERSONA^® 78 engravings for the work. Fine art expert Elena Shipitsina (Chelyabinsk Art Gallery), the restorer Tatyana Baturina (Chelyabinsk Regional Universal Scientific Library), assistant of the artist Alexandra Bychkova (RIG PERSONA^®), editor and translator Tatiana Reznitskaya (RIG PERSONA^®) were formatting detailed registry of engravings: fixing the size, description of their condition, listing all the marks left on the works for history of the collection. The stage lasted two weeks.

Before the restavration work all the sheets from the front and back side were photographed in the "Visual Image Workshop of Alexander Sokolov" to fix the state of engravings.

Expertise and restavration works 

 RIG PERSONA^® concluded the agreement on the restoration (09.07.2007) and contracts for carrying out the technological and stylistic expertise (27.8.2007 and 11.3.2008) with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise - Academician Igor Grabar’ Art-Union Scientific and Restavration Center. Specialists of the center assessed the state of engravings, their art and historical value. Experts concluded that all engravings had antique and collectors’ value and some of them had museum quality because of their uniqueness. In the process of restoration, it turned out that, fortunately, the images were not destructed and, for the most part, only paper-based images were restored.

Professional museum supplies were chosen for the restoration of the engravings: special, not oxidized glue, tape, paper, cardboard. The company "Lion Art Service" (Moscow) carried out the delivery. Mats for 78 works of the collection were made from the same materials.

Constructive and art design

 V. Smelyanskiy, consulting with experts of the Exclusive Binding Workshop "Paragon" (Moscow), developed a special package construction of three sheets of cardboard (a substrate, a window, a cover) for universal purpose of mat: for storage and exposition. Mats were made from acid-free preservative special cardboard Colourmount (production in the UK) and were woven by moir? fabric Ivory (production in the U.S.), with the use of only plant and animal origin glue. The cover of each mat was embossed by gold foil with the use of specially manufactured stamp (bookplate "Struve-Otten Collection", created by V. Smelyanskiy).

Director of "Lion Art Service" ordered and installed special expensive equipment to cut a window in the mat.

Four unique albums-depositories were designed for the collection’s safety and for convenience to work. Constructive solution and art concept were developed by the artist V. Smelyanskiy, assistant Alexander Bychkov, technological design and production were carried out by specialists of "Paragon" (director and artist Andrei Antonov).

RIG PERSONA^® has developed the system of informational nameplates attached to the mat for the attribution of the collection. Each of them concluded the information (in Russian and English) about the particular engraving. Nameplates were designed by V. Smelyanskiy, assistant artist Artyom Kim, production - "Gedakolor-Ural" (Chelyabinsk) and "Gedakolor-M" (Moscow). Translation and drafting of the texts accompanied to the project were made by specialists of RIG PERSONA^® (director Nadezhda Rudykh).

Assessment of the collection

In October 2008, experts of the Expert Institute "Art Consulting" (Moscow), an international professional appraiser of art objects, evaluated the collection. It proved its worth.

Photographing of restored engravings and delivery of the collection

On October 17, 2008 at the end of the work, all engravings, albums-depositories and mats were brought to Chelyabinsk and photographed in the "Visual Image Workshop of Alexander Sokolov".

On October 18, 2008 in the presence of the director of RIG PERSONA^® V. Smelyanskiy, the producer of RIG PERSONA^® N. Kozakova, the lawyer N.A. Sysolyakina, the fine art expert Shipitsina E., the editor of RIG PERSONA^® T. Reznitskaya, the assistant of artist A. Kim, the collection was transferred to its owner A.B. Otten. Otten also got 79 expert reviews and 78 restavration passports of Federal State Unitary Enterprise academician Igor Grabar’ Art-Union Scientific and Restavration Center.

Development of package of accompanying documents: legal, evaluation, expert, restavration, financial, historical and literary

The final stage of two-year work was the creation of a full package of documentation to facilitate the work with engravings. All the information related to the collection was structured and incorporated into a single two-volume catalog. Individual sections are as follows:

• complete set of expert reviews
   
• complete set of restavration reports
   
• cost research
   
• set of legal documents accompanied the collection 
   
• set of financial documents accompanied the collection 
   
• set of archival documents
   
• history of the collection, specially written and originally decorated by editors of RIG PERSONA^®
  
   

All the information package was decorated in the same style as the collection, accompanied by informational marking plates, printed on aluminum slabs.

All accompanying documentation has been duplicated in electronic format and recorded on an external hard drive for transfer to the customer.

Complete documentation package was packed in compact aluminum case for storage with the collection in a bank vault.

Creation of complete documentation package and decoration in the general style was final stage of turning the private collection of engravings into the cultural and art object "Struve-Otten Collection".

The cultural and art object "Struve-Otten Collection"

Nowadays "Struve-Otten Collection", collected by Henry Struve and saved by his heirs, has been restored, structured, attributed, complemented by new items (albums-depositories, mats, information nameplate), which became the integral part of the collection.

According to experts’ reviews of Academician Igor Grabar’ Art-Union Scientific and Restavration Center "Struve-Otten Collection" is the complete, thematic collection of engravings. It has absolute art, scientific and museum value.

At the end of the project the collection became not only heirloom but the unique cultural and art object.

 For the first time, the article was published on the web-site www.persona-rig.ru, 2008