UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 14, Page 2
December 12, 1991
Christie's benefit auction raises $153,00 for fund

     A benefit auction held at Christie's, the posh New York
auction house, to raise funds for the Paul Coremans Endowment Fund
in Art Conservation Research at the University of Delaware netted
$153,000 after expenses, according to Joyce Hill Stoner,
chairperson of the University's Department of Art Conservation.
     An additional $250,000 is anticipated from six more donated
pieces that are slated for professional auctions at Christie's
between now and next April, Stoner said. These valuable pieces were
deemed too high in quality to risk low bids at a charity auction
and have been awarded full professional standing.
     Proceeds benefit endowed fellowships at the University in the
name of the late Paul Coremans, a Belgium scientist known for his
unceasing efforts toward interdisciplinary cooperation in art
conservation.
     There was standing room only in Christie's 300-seat auction
area, with many friends of the University traveling to New York
from Wilmington on a special bus chartered for the event.
     Auctioned pieces ranged from an English-folio stand to Indian
sandstone sculpture; British silver to 19th-century portraits by
Royall Brewster Smith.
     Works by living artists from Los Angeles to Belgium to Japan
and 20th-century masters such as Anni Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy
Lichtenstein, Moses Soyer and Victor Vaserely also were auctioned.
     The University's doctoral program in art conservation research
is the first of its kind in North America. Two students enrolled in
the two-year program in September 1990, and two more enrolled this
fall. The program is kept small due to the specialized nature of
the research. The only other existing program is at the University
of London.
     The University and Winterthur Museum currently co-sponsor one
of only three graduate programs in the U.S. to train conservators
of art materials such as paintings, decorative and ethnographic
objects, furniture, textiles, photographs and works of art on
paper. Ten students are accepted each year for the M.S. degree.
That program leads to a master's degree, still thought to be the
"terminal" degree for a practicing art conservator although needs
of many areas in the profession led to the establishment of the
doctoral program. The doctorate is awarded for advanced research.
     Graduates of the Ph.D. program can go on to work in museum
research laboratories, teach in existing master's degree programs,
or offer courses in technical examination of art and artifacts to
art historians and archaeologists at universities.
                                        - Beth Thomas