New online NICAS Colloquium on June 11th at 12:00 CET

We are pleased to announce a new, online edition of the NICAS – Netherlands Institute for Conservation+Art+Science+ colloquium on Thursday, 11 June 2026, from 12:00 – 13:00 CET. The colloquium will take place online through Microsoft Teams.

This week’s presentation is by Victoria Ward (Rijksmuseum). This session will be chaired by Han Zhou (University of Amsterdam).

The presentation Historic Methods, New Insights: Evaluating Conservation Recipes for Varnish Removal on Oil Paintings by Victoria Ward will focus on two historically inspired cleaning methods for oil paintings that have been further developed with the use of modern conservation equipment and a range of analytical and imaging techniques: Clay poultices for varnish removal and raising the temperature of organic solvents during varnish removal.

The research has been carried out at the Rijksmuseum’s Conservation and Science department and in collaboration with the GoGreen research team. The presentation will provide fascinating physical and chemical insights into the risks and the benefits of historical cleaning methods that relied on natural materials and simpler technologies.

You register and join the colloqiuim via this link.