The Greek Department of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments is facing a huge challenge in cataloguing and storing up to 50,000 objects housed at Tatoi, the former royal estate in northern Athens.

The objects have been packed into three closed rooms with 10,000 needing expert attention before they can be moved, reports ekathemerini. The remaining 40,000 objects still need to be looked at.

The royal estate and its contents came under the control of the Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2004. Maria Mertzani, head of the ministry’s Department of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments, said the contents range from household appliances and everyday objects to furniture and works of art.

“The main challenge for the conservators was the diversity of materials and the condition of the objects. Of 50,000 objects, around 10,000 underwent basic treatment to ensure their integrity before they were packed up for storage.”

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For many years the only things that were removed from the former palace were valuable paintings. In 2015, a large number of palace artefacts were moved to the Museum of Modern Greek Culture in Plaka which is closed at present.

The last conservation drive in the estate ended in 2012 but much more needs to be done.

“Tatoi is like an ocean to us. Given our limited resources and the fact that it’s quite far away from Athens, there is only so much we can do. The Ministry of Culture recently submitted a proposal to the Attica Regional Authority for inclusion in the European Union’s Partnership Agreement,” said Ms Mertzani.

“The proposal was dismissed though and now we are preparing a fresh drive to submit a new proposal on the orders of Culture Minister Lina Mendoni.”

In addition to objects that have been processed, there are still many more objects locked away in two more buildings on the estate.

“The fact is that we keep everything at Tatoi, not just the things that people may think are valuable, but also simple everyday things like mattresses, old air-conditioning units and even the trash that was found on the site. We estimated that we would need a space of more than 3,500 square meters just for the objects from the two buildings, without the cars, boats, machinery and so on.”

Another concern is what to do with eight cars and two electronic tricycles on the estate including the Rolls Royce that the Greek royal family used on official functions.

“The study for their preservation has already started and we have found all the documents pertaining to them, but now we are debating whether the cars need to be restored to working order or simply used for display purposes. If the cars are restored to working order, we will need to replace certain parts, which means making changes to an object that is listed for preservation. It’s a fascinating issue that involves many different parameters,” said Ms Mertzani.