Can the Division – and Therefore Destruction – of an Object Ever Be Defensible in Pursuit of ‘Better’ Conservation and Research? How Far Can We Go in Retracing the ‘Lost Object’ Within the Current Ensemble?

In the 1980s and 1990s, conservators in the newly established textile studio at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) were confronted with a compelling and complex conservation intervention for an extraordinary textile object: the casula, a textile associated with Saints Harlindis and Relindis of Maaseik, Belgium. Once housed in a reliquary, it comprised a striking variety of fragments, each distinct in origin, age, and craftsmanship, some dating as far back as the eighth century CE, making the ensemble a complex puzzle of reused and reassembled materiality that posed a true conundrum. Which aspects of its layered history should guide conservation treatment? How should such a composite object be preserved and interpreted? The decision was made to dismantle the casula and conserve each fragment individually. The decade-long project involved intensive interdisciplinary collaboration and extensive documentation. Today, these textiles have returned to KIK-IRPA, no longer as a single object but as an ensemble of carefully conserved elements, since the original configuration was elusive and raised new questions on how to retrace the object that once was. This research seeks to recontextualize the ensemble, not to reverse past decisions, but to recover lost layers of meaning through archival research, research of the biography of the components, and interviews with the conservators involved. Their insights offer a crucial, often overlooked, perspective on complex conservation interventions. Further, by revisiting this project, we aim to illuminate and reflect on the evolution of conservation practice, considering how future conservators might document, interpret, and communicate complex treatment so that today’s decisions remain legible, or at the very least retraceable, tomorrow.