On February 12th and 13th, the symposium “Urushi and Asian lacquers in Western collections: a symposium on scientific and conservation challenges” was held at the British Museum, London, UK, with 60 attendees from the UK, Europe, USA, China and Japan. The event consisted of a first day of oral lectures from invited speakers, providing insights on the current state-of-the-art of science and conservation of Asian lacquer at Western institutions. On the second day, the attendees have visited the “Samurai” exhibition, and, after returning to the event room, the plenary speaker, Kitamura Shigeru, talked about the challenges related to the restoration of lacquer cultural properties in Japan. After that, the attendees were split into groups and discussed on the most pressing challenges of the field.
This truly interdisciplinary opportunity brought together experts from diverse fields and countries to discuss the unique material, urushi.

Support：
・ICR International Joint Usage / Research Center (iJURC)
・Toshiba International Foundation
・The Kyoto University Foundation
・The British Museum

Organizers：
・BONADUCE, Ilaria (Pisa University)
・PINCELLA, Francesca（ICR Synthetic Organotransformation）
・TAMBURINI, Diego (British Museum)
・MINEO, Keito（ICR Synthetic Organotransformation）

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• Urushi and Asian lacquers in Western collections: a symposium on scientific and conservation challenges