Romanian National Museum Begins Restoration of the Coțofenești Iron Helmet

The National Museum of History of Romania has received a favourable opinion from the National Commission of Museums and Collections to start restoring the Coif of Coțofenești, one of the country’s most valuable archaeological pieces. The helmet, recovered after a theft from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands in January 2025, will undergo a carefully planned conservation programme.

Before any physical work, specialists carried out extensive imaging to document the helmet’s condition. A second phase of non‑invasive physico‑chemical analyses—including optical and digital microscopy, X‑ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy‑dispersive X‑ray spectroscopy (EDX), proton‑induced X‑ray emission (PIXE) and metallography—was performed by museum experts together with researchers from the Institute for Nuclear Physics and Engineering “Horia Hulubei” (IFIN‑HH) and the National Heritage Agency of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The results will guide a restoration strategy based on minimal intervention, material compatibility, reversibility and thorough documentation.