Preventive conservation has the purpose of taking a number of preventive measures to minimise potential deterioration of works caused by inherent ageing of the materials with the passage of time or by outside factors such as handling of works, thereby obviating more delicate future restoration treatments.

Preventive conservation includes a maintenance and conservation programme for the Dalinian objects and montages in each glass case, area and room at the four museums, with tasks such as cleaning, the occasional consolidation work or planning of larger-scale restoration work. Dalí conceived of the Theatre-Museum as a great installation, as a series of related montages, ranging from the Cadillac with rain inside it to the Mae West room/face, and taking in the Venetian disguises, the doors with espadrilles or the mummy of a Chinese princess covered in microchips and the large-headed cardboard carnival effigy. While this overall approach stands as a distinctive feature of the museum, it is at the same time one of the greatest challenges facing the technicians conserving the Dalinian oeuvre, due to the diversity and heterodoxy of the materials used.

Furthermore, the singular nature of the architectural and museum spaces that the Foundation manages – from the former Figueres theatre to the small areas at the fishermen’s houses in Portlligat – makes certain aspects of preventive conservation particularly complex, involving the development of particular strategies and solutions suited to each case. The preventive conservation tasks also include control and monitoring of temperature, humidity and light in the rooms and the storage areas, to ensure that they remain stable and at the right levels for conservation of the works.