Art Conservation for the Classical Masks at Sonobudoyo Museum, Yogyakarta

Abstract

Sonobudoyo Museum Yogyakarta is the complete museum after the National Museum in Jakarta. There are many art collections in the museum, including bronze statues, gold statues, various ceramics, leather puppets, batik, bamboo works of art, furniture, and various Indonesian mask characters. The masks are treated and displayed in a particular place so that they can last hundreds of years and be seen until now. The research was aimed at how art conservation was carried out for these masks and at a particular strategy in maintaining, protecting, and caring for them. Therefore, it is interesting to study and understand the art of conservation for classical masks at the Sonobudoyo Museum, Yogyakarta. The research results showed that the knowledge of caring for, maintaining, protecting the masks as objects of art collections and cultural products with aesthetic, artistic, and historical values can still be known by the public and the generations. Moreover, the art conservation is also essential to know, not only by conservators but also by the broader community, to preserve and develop classical masks in the archipelago.