Reinwardt Memorial Lecture by Salvador Muñoz Viñas

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March 9 the internationally renowned Spanish professor Salvador Muñoz Viñas visited the Reinwardt Academy and read the 10th edition of the Reinwardt Memorial Lecture.

On March 9 the internationally renowned Spanish professor Salvador Muñoz Viñas visited the Reinwardt Academy and read the 10th edition of the Reinwardt Memorial Lecture. The Reinwardt Academy annually commemorates the birth of the namesake Reinwardt. At the March 9 event we will also be presenting the printed publication of the Reinwardt Memorial Lecture of the past year by art historian Margriet Schavemaker (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam).

Preserving the spirit of things. A look into the transactional nature of heritage conservation
Prof. Muñoz Viñas read a paper entitled Preserving the spirit of things. A look into the transactional nature of heritage conservation. In his lecture he addressed philosophical and ethical aspects of heritage conservation. Heritage conservation is only partially science-driven. Though aiming at recovering an object’s authenticity, any conservation decision will also affect it. Hence, such decisions are better seen as compromises between different values in a mix of ideas about truth and everyday opportunism. Muñoz Viñas urges the recognition of the "transactional nature conservation'.
Dr. Salvador Muñoz-Viñas (1963) holds a chair at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) in conservation, especially paper. Also visiting Scholar at Harvard and Distinguished Visiting Professor in New York (NYU), Muñoz is known for his Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Oxford, 2005), translated a.o. in Chinese and Persian.

Reinwardt Memorial Lecture
Since 2008, Reinwardt Academy annually commemorates the birthday of its namesake, Caspar Reinwardt, with a public lecture held by distinguished scholars in the field of the academy’s disciplines. Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt (1773-1854) was a botanist, founder and director of botanic gardens. An early receiver of honorary doctorates in philosophy and medicine, he later became professor of natural philosophy at the University of Leiden. During his stay in former Dutch Indonesia he extensively collected. After his return to the Netherlands, the collections were taken in by Dutch museums. Previous speakers at the Reinwardt Memorial Lecture included Ad de Jong, Lynne Teather, Rob van der Laarse, Laurajane Smith, Michael Shanks, Birgit Donker, Kavita Singh, Marcos Buser and Margriet Schavemaker. The lectures are published on the page Publications

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