On Friday 28th of April 2023 we welcomed at FORTH a delegation from Palace Museum in Beijing led by the deputy director, Dr Zhao Guoying. The aim of this visit was to discuss with FORTH colleagues the progress of the “China-Greece Joint Laboratory on Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology” and investigate further collaborations and common actions.

The Chinese delegation, also consisted of Dr Huang Moqiao, Deputy Director of the Department of IT, Imaging, and Digital Media of the Palace Museum, Dr Gao Fei, Researcher of the Conservation Department of the Palace Museum and Ms Wang Qian Secretary of the Conservation Standards Research Institute of the Palace Museum, participated to a dedicated colloquium organized at FORTH which enabled prolific discussions and new common initiatives between FORTH Institutes and the Palace Museum.

The delegation was welcomed at FORTH by Prof. Nektarios Tavernarakis, Chairman of the board of Directors of FORTH, Dr George Konstantinidis, Acting director of IESL-FORTH and Prof Dimitrios Plexousakis, Director of ICS-FORTH.

The dedicated colloquium was also attended by:

• Prof Demetrios Anglos, Prof. at the Chemistry Department University of Crete, Affiliated Faculty Member at IESL-FORTH and Member of the Scientific Committee of the “China-Greece Joint Laboratory on Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology”,
• Prof Spiros Anastasiadis, Prof. at the Chemistry Department University of Crete, Affiliated Faculty Member at IESL-FORTH, former director of IESL-FORTH and Member of the Management Committee of the “China-Greece Joint Laboratory on Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology”
• Dr Paraskevi Pouli, Researcher at IESL-FORTH in charge of laser cleaning activities, and Executive deputy director of the “China-Greece Joint Laboratory on Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology”
• Dr Sophia Sotiropoulou, Prof. at the Open University of Greece, Affiliated Faculty Member at IESL-FORTH
• Mr Kostas Hatzigiannakis, Research Scientist at IESL-FORTH in charge of multispectral Imaging activities and Member of the Management Committee of the “China-Greece Joint Laboratory on Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology”
• Prof Yannis Tzitzikas, Director of Research at the Center for Cultural Informatics, ICS-FORTH
• Dr. Xenophon Zabulis, Researcher at the Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory, ICS-FORTH
• Ms Chryssoula Bekiari, Researcher at the Center for Cultural Informatics, ICS-FORTH
• Dr. Pavlos Fafalios, Associate Researcher at the Center for Cultural Informatics, ICS-FORTH
• Dr. Vassiliki Sythiakaki, Director of Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion
• Eliza Kavoulaki (MSc), Head of the Department of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion.

The attendants presented their work on Laser analysis and cleaning in Cultural Heritage, the Digital tools developed for handling and presentation of data, also in the context of CIDOC CRM and the Computational Vision methods for tangible Cultural Heritage. The Palace Museum delegation presented the progress of the “China-Greece Joint Laboratory on Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology” as well as their research on Information Technology, Imaging, and Digital Media activities while the director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion presented their activities with emphasis to common actions with FORTH. After the completion of the colloquium, a visit to the laboratories of PhoHS at IESL-FORTH followed. The delegation also had the chance to visit the archaeological Museum of Heraklion and the Knossos Royal Palace.