Since 1997 the students of the Restoration Department of N.K. Roerich Art School conduct restoration works of printed graphics and books from the collections of the National Library of Russia.

N.K. Roerich Secondary Art School is one of the oldest in this country. Its history goes back to the "Stock Exchange School of Drawing" founded in 1839 which later became the School of the Society for encouragement of the fine arts whose teaching staff included celebrated artists and, in particular, N.K. Roerich. In the 1920s this school was reorganized into a secondary school named later after the Soviet artist Vladimir Serov. Since 1991 it has been called N.K. Roerich School.

The Restoration Department was inaugurated in this school in 1965. Seven years later some students started specializing in restoration of graphics. The graduates of this school, which is unique in Russia in that the restorers there are taught on the basis of the comprehensive curriculum, can conduct all kinds of restoration works and are in great demand among the largest Russian museums.

For practical classes of these students the Printed Graphics Department provided materials of different complexity level and in different artistic formats - Western European engraved portraits and illustrations of the 16^th - 18^th centuries, Russian engraved and lithographic portraits and illustrations of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, chromolithographic cheap popular prints. Sheets recently purchased from collectors were very soiled and damaged in many places. The photographs of the sheets before restoration displayed at the exhibition bear witness to the high professional level of the students who breathed new life into these works of art which now can be better preserved and displayed at exhibitions.

Inga Lander