"The Water is Better"
A mountain pueblo 45 minutes north of Madrid in the Sierra de Guadarrama is an unlikely place to find a world-class art restoration business, but that's where Barbáchano & Beny is located, in the village of Cercedilla. It is here, in the cheerfully sunlit ground floor of a stone house in the upper village where Pedro Barbáchano and his wife, Ana Beny, have mounted their state-of-the-art paper and parchment restoration facility, which attends mainly institutional clients from all over the world. "There is actually a centuries-old tradition of paper mills being located in mountain villages," says Pedro. "The water is better."

"Restoration facility" is too amorphous a term for this fascinating combination of research laboratory, workshop, detective's office and clinic. "In fact," that's precisely what we are," says Pedro, "a clinic for sick papers." That explains the hospital-like atmosphere here, with everyone attired in white laboratory smocks; the compulsive cleanliness; Pedro's serious scientific discourse and reassuring bedside manner. His mission is clear and the medical analogy is complete: he and his team of experts diagnose paper illnesses, they carry out the necessary treatments and then follow up the patients' recovery.

New Standards for Restorers
The blurb on the Barbáchano & Beny brochure reads like a life sentence: "The period of empirical restoration has passed. Today we require a scientific methodology in which virtuosity and improvisation are wholly out of place. The origin of the gravest and most irreversible damages can be traced to 'restoration' carried out by clever, adroit, but amateur hands devoid of specialized technical training."

"I Wanted to See What I Was Capable Of..."
Pedro is 50ish and wears well the mantle of "maestro," speaking with the clearness and confidence of a person who is at the top of his profession and must answer only to his clients. He was formed professionally in the restoration departments of Spain's great libraries, museums and archives, "for which I am forever grateful," he says. "I owe my formation to the Spanish people." In 1988 Pedro took a five-year leave of absence from the public sector to set up his own restoration business. "There was still no serious paper restoration firm to attend private clients here, and I wanted to see what I could do once I was free of the strictures of the public administration." He never looked back.

Ironically, 14 years later Barbáchano & Beny does very little work for private clients and even less in Madrid. Most of their orders are from libraries, historical archives and museums from all over the world. "These days we basically only deal with really important works on paper or parchment," says Pedro, adding. "Do you see that book Ana is working on working on over there? It's a first edition, hand written by Christopher Columbus' son. Basically," says Pedro, "our installations, equipment and technical level are among the finest in the world. The only area in which we can't compete is price. Besides getting all of the hardest jobs, the ones other places reject, everything we touch is very expensive. All of this has to be reflected in our prices."

Ana Beny is a younger woman, lively and professional, with clearly-expressed ideas and lots of character. I have come to talk with Pedro and Ana about fine-print conservation, a subject which they are eminently qualified to discuss. But, inevitably, in a place with so many interesting things going on, the conversation is far ranging.

The Paper Ghostbusters
The most fascinating subject to me is that of crisis management in archives and libraries. What do you do when a storm damages a library roof and entire racks of priceless old books and manuscripts are soaked? To whom do you turn when a heating pipe bursts and sprays water over 700 books which the Spanish catalog as "fondo antiguo," that is to say, published before the year 1700? You turn to Barbáchano & Beny, who have made these rescue operations one of their specialties. "All preparations are ready beforehand," says Pedro. "This includes specially equipped vans and specialized personnel.
When an emergency occurs we mobilize everybody immediately. This means our entire staff of 11 and their families, even girlfriends."

"Time is of the essence; the first 48 hours are critical, as that's how long it takes for funguses to start to develop. These are not easy situations to deal with," says Pedro. "You need to dry everything quickly so as to obviate the "foxing" effects of fungus, but rapid drying causes deformation of the paper and the leather in the bindings, which only compounds the problems. So you can't apply heat, nor strong ventilation, which only compound the problems. But neither can you lose time while fungus causes irreparable damage. It seems to be an insoluble problem."

So, what do you do?

"Here's where the technology comes in," says Pedro, triumphantly. "You freeze everything."

How do you freeze the contents of an entire archive?

"It's complicated, but not so much as you might think. The last time it occurred we took all the books and manuscripts to an industrial freezing plant outside Zaragoza."

What then? When you thaw them out they're going to be wet again, no?

"Well, actually, no," says Pedro, "because we don't thaw them out till they're dry. That is to say, we submit them to a process of liophilization, in the same way that freeze-dried soups or fishfood are dried. Little by little, we place the frozen books, documents, prints, maps and manuscripts in a hyperbaric chamber, essentially the same apparatus which divers use to decompress. But instead of increasing the atmospheric pressure inside, we decrease it, creating a vacuum."

What happens then?
"Then the ice begins to sublimate, to pass directly from a solid to a gaseous state, thereby bypassing the water stage. So everything dries out without even noticing that it has been wet. It isn't quite so simple as that, as there are delicate questions of handling and many scientific controls in the process, but that's the essence of it.

"The tragedy is that the conservation of works on paper is not even very complicated. There are no magic formulas," says Pedro, "just common sense. Merely by becoming acquainted with the natural enemies of paper--heat, humidity, light, acids, insects, bleaches-we are able to take effective preventive measures. The most common enemy of fine paper is wood, for its acid content, so framed prints should never be backed with wood. Even the wooden molding should be kept at a discreet distance from the paper. Naturally, all framing materials which come in contact with the paper should be Ph neutral, or slightly alkaline."

Very often, according to Pedro, the problems are inherent in the paper itself. "Most modern papers are already contaminated in the manufacturing process," he says, "so with time the exposure to normal levels of light and humidity triggers chemical reactions. Of course, the problems are compounded in hot, humid climates. How to prevent this? Use quality papers which are guaranteed acid free. The best paper manufacturers produce museum quality papers, though they cost a lot more. Uncompromising quality is the answer to preventing most problems," says Pedro, "and it is never cheap."

The Finest Papers in History
According to Pedro, the world's finest papers were produced in Europe in the 18th century. Manufactured by master paper makers out of white rags of pure linen and hemp, they were considered the essential supports for each country's priceless cultural heritage, and were treated as such. Then the demand for paper spiralled quickly upwards and standards dropped. There was actually a period of contraband in rags from the south of Europe to the north around the end of the 18th century. After this time European paper makers resorted to inferior short-fiber wood cellulose, which was brown and required chemical treatment to bleach it. Paper was never the same from then on.

Given the almost universally low standards of framing and restoration services available to art collectors worldwide, the question of how to find reliable technicians for this work acquires tremendous importance. Pedro has some valuable suggestions. "A competent framer or restorer is essential," he says. "If you can find a person recommended by someone knowledgeable, so much the better. If not, it's a question of doing your homework. Read all you can on the subject, then go and discuss your concerns with your framer or restorer. If you don't get the right answers, keep looking until you do."

Cures Worse Than the Illnesses
"In matters of paper restoration, very often the cure is more damaging than the illness itself," says Pedro. "Most interventions can bring with them medium and long-term changes in the paper. Often the work you decide not to undertake on a print is as important or even moreso than that which you do carry out. A good restorer will discuss all of these issues with the client so he or she can make informed decisions. If your restorer doesn't talk with you, it's a bad sign. "Important decisions must be taken regarding staining, for example. Stains from foxing can be removed by bleaching, but the effects of the bleach on the paper are deadly in the medium and long terms. I don't want any print which has been bleached. Recently we bleached a Goya print for a longtime client who insisted, and when I returned it to him I told him clearly, "Now, sell it!'"

Many old-fashioned restorers will abuse the technique of dampening deformed papers, then submitting them to extreme pressures in a press," says Pedro. "This process eliminates all of the important textural qualities of a print or document. We're talking here about textures inherent in the paper itself, in the typography, the edges of the plate, not to mention any embossing which may be present. That is the first quality to be lost."

Pedro Barbáchano is one of those exceptional people who make you feel enriched just by talking with him, and for a person interested in art conservation and recovery the rewards are multiplied. I dared to ask him very tentatively if he would be willing to share some of his specific technical knowledge regarding the all-important question of framing with World Printmakers. "I'd be delighted to do that," said Pedro. "It's just a question of finding the time. But, as it's a matter which I consider tremendously important, I'll give it priority."

So, with any luck, we'll be hearing from Pedro in the near future.