London’s Window Film Systems
is distributing enough special ultraviolet-resistant
film to cover thousands of windows at the Hermitage
in Russia.
Peter Yates clearly understands the priceless value
of the art collection in the Hermitage.
The Rembrandts, the Da Vinci’s, the Renoir’s – their
worth is as clear as the special window film his company
is distributing to the famous Russian museum.
Yates’ company, Window Film Systems, is the
Canadian distributor of the product manufactured in
Boston, Mass. by Madico Window Films. It’s film
designed to cover windows and offer protection from
damaging ultraviolet rays. Over the next few months,
the London firm will be shipping enough film to St.
Petersburg to cover the first phase of the project
that will cover 560 windows – 7800 panes of glass
at the Hermitage.
Beyond Elimination: “ A lot of our standard
window film products do a very good job of eliminating
ultraviolet rays, but this one specifically takes it
that much further,” he said.
The incredible art collection at the majestic Russian
museum, built by Catherine the Great, has been under
attack recently by damaging sunrays. The UV window
film, which was designed to protect store windows,
museums and galleries, is an optically clear film that
is applied to windowpanes and can eliminate close to
100 per cent of ultraviolet rays.
How the London company came to land work with one
Europe’s most renowned art galleries came through
working with smaller galleries and eventually selling
protective film to the National Art Gallery in Ottawa.
“The National Art Gallery put this material
to its own test in the Canadian Museum of Contemporary
Photography,” Yates said. “They basically
said they loved the product. It’s done everything
that they wanted it to do and it solved their problems.
They have done their test to determine whether this
stuff is just somebody speaking through their hat or
whether is actually works. It does work.
Robert Kaszanits formerly with the National Gallery
of Canada manages the Heritage project and recommended
the product.
Yates has been working with another company in Pembroke,
which developed an installation manual and will be
supervising the application of the film to the historic
windows. The film will arrive in London on a 1500 metre
master roll and will be cut for the windows before
it is shipped to Russia. Yates may go to see the work
in April.
Growing: Yates’ company, which employs seven
people, continues to grow. An affiliated company in
the manufacturing end of the business is Laminating
Technologies, which is working on film-related products
for laminating glass for graffiti protection, burglar
resistance and hurricane protection.
“We’ve changed buildings a couple of times
in the past few years. We are expanding.” And
the museum work continues to expand including a proposed
filming of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
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