The activity of restoring paper and books began in 1985 when in the wall of the refectory of the monastery from Şumuleu a very valuable, but ruined book was found. Since then the restoration and preservation of the incunabula have been constant activities of our museum. At the present time the Szekler Museum of Ciuc owns one of the most up – to – date paper and book – restoration workshops in Romania.

The museum holds several panel paintings, polychrome wood statues, crucifixes, and icons from the 16th – 20th centuries. The restoration of these objects is a noble and highly responsible job. The documentation, testing of materials, sterilization, dry – and wet – cleaning, neutralization and completion of the missing parts of the works of art are all parts of the restoration process of these fine arts objects.

Until the end of the 1980s the metal objects of the museum’s collection were only cleaned and preserved, but there has been nobody who could have restored them. Outside of the institution some efforts for the restoration of metal objects have already been made, which can be considered the first steps in the protection of these works of art. The restoration was usually done by an artisan or by the owner of the object. In 1988 the museum also began to restore metal objects with the help of professional restorers.

This workshop has been operating since the middle of the 1980s. At the beginning its aim was to restore the finds of earlier archaeological excavations, such as: spurs made of bronze and iron, fibulae, Roman fruit – bowl made of ceramics, bronze vessel for storing cereals. In the 1990s most of the restored objects had ethnographical character. In 1995 it took place the exhibition called “Restoration of Ethnographical Objects Made of Metal”. The biggest realizations of the last few years it has been the cleaning of the metal objects of the smithy from Gheorgheni, the restoration of tiles and the restoration of a skeleton from the early bronze – age.