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Prof. Marc Walton

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Professor of Museum Studies

Contact
2/F, T. T. Tsui Building
Telephone: +852 3917 5503
Email Marc Walton

Education


D.Phil. in Archaeological Science, University of Oxford


Advanced Certificate in Art Conservation, Institute of Fine Arts,
New York University


M.A. in Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University


B.A. in Chemistry, Clark University 

Bio

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Marc Walton joined HKU in 2024 to develop a conservation training program at the University. Prior to this, he held senior leadership positions at Hong Kong's M+ (Head of Conservation and Research) and in academia as co-director of Northwestern University's Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts where he was also a Professor in the Materials Science Department. There he led multiple scientific projects investigating art objects in collaboration with cultural heritage institutions representing a broad range of disciplines (from anthropology to contemporary art) and geographical reach (both U.S. and internationally). He has also held positions at the Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) after receiving his training in art history, conservation and archaeological science at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts and the University of Oxford. Walton's areas of research have focused primarily on the manufacture and trade of archaeological objects and on developing imaging technologies in the field of conservation science. He has more recently delved into sustainable collections care. These efforts have resulted in over 130 peer-reviewed articles.

Research Interests

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  • Technical examination of art and archaeological objects

  • Computational imaging and artifical intelligence applied to cultural heritage

  • Trade and circulation of objects and those who made them 

  • Sustainability in museums

Courses

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Selected Publications and Exhibitions

* Corresponding Author

Last 3 years, for a complete list see Google Scholar

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  • Bjørnland, Lasse Hermansen, Patrick Degryse, Nadine Schibille, Katherine Eremin, Marc Sebastian Walton, Bernard Gratuze, Dennis Braekmans, Andrew J. Shortland. "The Production of Smalt and Other Cobalt Compounds at the Blaafarveværket, Modum, Norway." Forensic Archaeology, Anthropology and Ecology (2024).

  • Choi, J., A. Dashpute, B. Xu, O. Cossairt, M. Walton, J. Tumblin, and F. Willomitzer. "How to archive the visual contents of aging analog film holograms?." In DGaO proceedings. DGaO Proceedings 2023, (2023).

  • Vermeulen, Marc, Samuel M. Webb, Susan Russick, Alicia C. McGeachy, Karissa Muratore, and Marc S. Walton*. "Identification, Transformations and Mobility of Hazardous Arsenic-Based Pigments on 19th Century Bookbindings in Accessible Library Collections." Journal of Hazardous Materials 454 (2023): 131453.

  • Liu, L., E. Catelli, A. Katsaggelos, G. Sciutto, R. Mazzeo, M. Milanic, J. Stergar, S. Prati, and M. Walton*. "Digital Restoration of Colour Cinematic Films Using Imaging Spectroscopy and Machine Learning." Scientific Reports 12, no. 1 (2022): 21982.

  • Vermeulen, Marc, Diego Tamburini, Alicia C. McGeachy, Rebecca D. Meyers, and Marc S. Walton*. "Multiscale Characterization of Shellfish Purple and Other Organic Colorants in 20th-Century Traditional Enredos from Oaxaca, Mexico." Dyes and Pigments 206 (2022): 110663.

  • Vermeulen, Marc, Alicia McGeachy, Bingjie Xu, Henry Chopp, Aggelos Katsaggelos, Rebecca Meyers, Matthias Alfeld, and Marc Walton*. "XRFast: A New Software Package for Processing of MA-XRF Datasets Using Machine Learning." Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 37, no. 10 (2022): 2130–43.

  • Walton, Marc*, P. Hao, M. Vermeulen, F. Willomitzer, and Oliver Cossairt. "Characterizing the Immaterial. Noninvasive Imaging and Analysis of Stephen Benton's Hologram Engine No. 9." arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.06080 (2021).

  • Fiske, LD, Aggelos K. Katsaggelos, Maurice CG Aalders, Matthias Alfeld, Marc Walton, and Oliver Cossairt. "A Data Fusion Method for the Delayering of X-ray Fluorescence Images of Painted Works of Art." In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 3458–62. IEEE, 2021.

  • Walton, Marc*, Marc Vermeulen, Annette S. Ortiz Miranda, and Diego Tamburini. "Technical Steps Towards Enhanced Localization of Proteins in Cultural Heritage Samples by Immunofluorescence Microscopy and Micro-Reflectance Imaging Spectroscopy." Microchemical Journal 176 (2022): 107243.

  • Vermeulen, Marc, Annette S. Ortiz Miranda, Diego Tamburini, Sol E. Rivera Delgado, and Marc Walton*. "A Multi-Analytical Study of the Palette of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Puerto Rican Artists." Heritage Science 10, no. 1 (2022).

  • Chopp, Henry, Alicia McGeachy, Matthias Alfeld, Oliver Cossairt, and Marc Walton. "Denoising Fast X-ray Fluorescence Raster Scans of Paintings." arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.01740 (2022).

  • Casadio, Francesca, Marc Walton, and Giovanni Verri. "An ecosystem for diagnosis: creating synergies in academic and museum research." CONSERVATION 360º 2 (2022).

  • Xu, Bingjie Jenny, Wu, Yunan, Hao, Pengxiao, Vermeulen, Marc, McGeachy, Alicia, Smith, Kate, Eremin, Katherine, Rayner, Georgina, Verri, Giovanni, Willomitzer, Florian, Alfeld, Matthias, Tumblin, Jack, Katsaggelos, Aggelos, Walton, Marc* "Can deep learning assist automatic identification of layered pigments from XRF data?." Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 37, no. 12 (2022): 2672-2682.

  • Chopp, Henry, Alicia McGeachy, Matthias Alfeld, Oliver Cossairt, and Marc Walton. "Image Processing Perspectives of X-ray Fluorescence Data in Cultural Heritage Sciences." IEEE Bits & the Information Theory Magazine 2, no. 1 (2022): 20–35.

  • Vermeulen, Marc, Diego Tamburini, Alicia C. McGeachy, Rebecca D. Meyers, and Marc S. Walton*. "Multiscale Characterization of Shellfish Purple and Other Organic Colorants in 20th-Century Traditional Enredos from Oaxaca, Mexico." Dyes and Pigments 206 (2022): 110663.

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