The article discusses the activity of the Institute of Archaeological Technology (1919-1937). The Institute, attached to the State Academy of History of Material Culture, was the first establishment in the Soviet Union to take up the problems of restoration and conservation of both archaeological finds and museum articles of artistic value. The Institute relied on many outstanding Russian scholars: academician of mineralogy A.E. Fersman, historian and art critic M.V. Fermakovsky, chemist and art critic V.A. Schavinsky, art critic P.I. Dmitriev, and others. -- AATA