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Posted By: warshawlaw

If a paper conservation technique is accepted by every museum in the world for its fine prints and works of art, don't so blithely toss out the idea of those same techniques being applied to cards. Museums do not allow their collections to degenerate or remain damaged. If some moron spills his coke on a Rembrandt print, the museum sends it to a conservator who will clean it and try to prevent long term damage. If you buy a print from a gallery and improperly mount it, causing acid burns on the paper, you can have a conservator try to remove the stains and buffer the paper against further acid damage.

I really think this is a discussion that we need to have with open minds and reasonable attitudes. I realize that thinking of a rare card the same way as someone thinks of a Chagall print is not consistent the the card collector's mentality but this has to change if the vintage material world is to grow. If it is accepted in the world of fine arts to remove foreign materials from a fine art print and to buffer it so that the acids in the paper do not cause it to degenerate, it is just silly for us to decree that cards (which can cost as much as fine art prints) are too holy or special or whatever to undergo the same treatment.