Tatoi estate poses challenges for conservators

The documentation and storage of some 50,000 objects and heirlooms at the former royal estate of Tatoi in northern Athens between 2004 and 2012 was an operation of titanic proportions.

Packed for the time being into three closed rooms, around 10,000 of them needed expert attention before they could be moved, but the remaining 40,000 are still waiting to be tended to.

Photographs of the operation from the Culture Ministry reveal just how huge and complicated the project is, but also the importance of the work that was done in the early years, starting in 2004 when the estate and all of its contents came under the ministry's jurisdiction.

"Everything - from the household appliances and everyday utilitarian objects to valuable paintings, wooden furniture and electronic devices - was still in the palace," says Maria Mertzani, head of the ministry's Department of...