Costas Kirykos Vasiliadis

Biography

Conservation of antiques has always been something creative, challenging and exciting for Costas. Through his studies and work experience he has had the chance to approach and work with various materials. Since 2001 he has been focusing on conservation of marble sculptures and ceramics. In particular, he is interested in the study of old interventions on sculptures as well as in designing mounts and bases for exhibitions. Researching colour traces on sculptures and the identification of pigments is a new topic he is passionate about, and currently working on at the Acropolis Museum. Since active conservation is currently a highly debated topic, he wishes to study diachronically the role of methodology and conservation policies in decision-making processes.

Since 2000 he has been conserving sculptures at the Acropolis Museum. Costas feels it is a highly demanding task which requires skills, a deep respect for and knowledge of the importance of the items, and an eye for detail. Having been involved in several research and exhibition projects, Costas is now coordinator of the Sculptures Conservation Laboratory, as well as senior laser conservator. In 2012 Costas’ team were given a Keck Award for their laser conservation of the Caryatides which was a great success for the team.

More recently Costas has organised an exhibition about the island of Samothrace, prepared and installed artefacts for the exhibition of ancient Dion in A. Onassis Foundation in New York, organised the exhibition about Dodoni in the Acropolis Museum and conducted conservation analysis and interpretation of several sculptures from the collection of the museum. He is part of the team responsible for the installation of artefacts for the Acropolis temporary exhibitions.

Costas has contributed to the following publications:

• ‘Scientific Investigations of the Polychrome on the Lyon Kore (ca. 540 BC)’ in Proceedings 7th Round Table in Ancient Sculpture and Architecture, Florence 2015
• ‘Polychromy in Greek Sculpture’ in Olga Palagia (ed.) Handbook of Greek Sculpture, De Gruyter 2019

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2014, Costas was based in the Greece and Rome Department and his partner placement was spent at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Newcastle.

Costas’ exhibition project proposal was entitled, Kekrops: the Great King of Athens.

Costas’ place on the programme was generously sponsored by the Dresden Fellowship.

Legacy Projects
In 2015 Costas spent 3 months with Staatliche Kunstammlungen Dresden (SKD) on a research fellowship in Dresden.

In 2016 Costas was part of a team of ITP fellows who organised the workshop Talking Heavy in Istanbul. The workshop addressed current practices on site conservation, documentation and preservation of heavy heritage in the Mediterranean basin.