Storage, Conservation and Restoration

This department occupies an area of about 800m² composed by four storage rooms, a disinfestation room with an anoxic chamber, a laboratory and a conservation and restoration room. Inaugurated on 2 November 2010, it was distinguished in 2011 by APOM (the Portuguese museology association) with the "Best Conservation and Restoration Intervention" award.

In 2020, it won the Keck Award, an award established by the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC). This distinction is an unprecedented award for a Portuguese project and attests to the excellence of the work done by the department to enhance the cultural heritage of Sport Lisboa e Benfica.

Storage, Conservation and Restoration Department

The team is made up of professionals specialised in the areas of conservation and restoration, preventive conservation, documentation and management of collections, and photographic recording.

Storage rooms

All the objects that make up Sport Lisboa e Benfica's cultural collection are stored and organised in the storage rooms.

Restoration room and laboratory

In these two places, conservation and restoration interventions are carried out on objects composed of materials as diverse as wood, metal, ceramic, leather, and textile, as well as graphic documents and photography.

Restoration interventions

The study and assessment of the collection guarantee the bases for the strategic planning of the conservation and restoration interventions developed by the department. Every year a group of objects selected from among the items that make up the Club's collection are subjected to interventions. Restoration interventions are also carried out on objects belonging to institutions upon request.

Organisation and documentation of the collection

The documentation, research, inventory, and cataloguing actions are essential to the management and preservation of a collection with more than 35 thousand objects. These procedures are carried out using an application software and all the objects are identified with a unique bar code.

Preventive conservation

Preventive conservation consists of all the actions that, adopted indirectly on the objects, aim to postpone their degradation.

The department monitors and controls the levels of temperature, relative humidity and lighting and defines protocols for the control of biological activity, hygiene, handling, and packaging. Under appropriate conditions, these measures stabilise degradation factors, contributing to the collection's preservation.

Photographic record

Collecting images before, during and after restoration interventions is essential for the identification, study, monitoring and communication of each object.

Internship and training

Supporting the training of new conservator-restorers is one of department's missions. In the last years, not only students but also young professionals from several countries, namely Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, Croatia, United States of America, Colombia, and Australia, have participated in conservation training courses.

On site preservation actions

The department manages all preservation actions necessary for temporary exhibitions, guided tours, and other activities developed by Sport Lisboa e Benfica's Cultural Heritage. It is also responsible for keeping the permanent exhibition of the Benfica Museum - Cosme Damião up to date.

Communicating science

The Storage, Conservation and Restoration Department has been communicating the work that is developed by the team, as well as the collection that is not permanently in exhibition, through the participation in scientific events and in the social networks of the Benfica Museum - Cosme Damião, using the hashtag #ReservaConservaçãoeRestauro.
The department was designed to be accessible to visitation, so guided tours are organised on a regular basis. If you are interested in visiting us, please send the request to the email rcr@slbenfica.pt