Institute: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands

Country: The Netherlands

Link: www.uva.nl

Prof. Klaas Jan van den Berg is a senior scientist at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and a full professor in Conservation Science (Painted Art) at the University of Amsterdam. He specializes in chemical research into paintings, and in particular of the chemical and physical properties of paint systems and how they are affected by restoration methods. His main focus is the study of formulations, techniques, material changes and surface cleaning related to 20th Century paintings.

Van den Berg studied Chemistry in Utrecht and received his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 1994. He has extensive experience teaching and of supervising students and doctoral candidates partly in collaborations with the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL) in Maastricht.

He was the project leader for “CMOP -Cleaning of Modern Oil Paint” (Heritage Plus Joint Call, 2015-2018) and a task leader for a joint research activity on cleaning of paintings within IPERION-CH (Horizon 2020). Van den Berg is an editor of several journals and books including the Springer Book series on Cultural Heritage Science.

In May 2021 Klaas Jan van den Berg recorded a lecture on the chemical characteristics of wax-resin mixtures composed of natural materials especially for the masterclass. The lecture is available through this subpage on our website: Lecture 8: May 2021 – Klaas Jan van den Berg