Inside the Conservation Lab

Most museums hide their conservation work. GEM does the opposite: a glass corridor lets visitors watch conservators at work, in real time, on actual artifacts. The lab is divided by material - stone, wood, metals, textiles, organics. Each room has its own micro-climate. The textile room runs at 18°C and 50% humidity, the same conditions linen wants to live in for the next thousand years. The most photographed work in the lab is the team that re-assembled Tutankhamun's chariots. Each one took eleven months. The wooden parts were so fragile they had to be lifted on custom carbon-fiber cradles, never touched directly.