Museum glass vs. ordinary glass — what is the real difference?
The difference between 700 CZK and 2,500 CZK per m² of glazing. When it pays off, when it is a waste. No marketing, just what I actually see in the commissions I have been doing for twenty years.
What it is about
Glass over a picture does three things: it protects against dust, moisture and UV radiation. And one thing it can spoil for you: it reflects.
Ordinary glass manages only the first. Anti-reflective glass eliminates reflections. Museum glass handles all of it — UV protection, anti-reflective coating and an optical clarity that lets you see the work as if there were no glass at all.
What museum glass is
In the workshop I mainly use two ranges: Artglass AR70 (Austrian) and Tru Vue UltraVue (American). Both have an anti-reflective coating and block 70–99 % of UV radiation.
The difference against ordinary glass is obvious the moment you walk into the workshop — samples side by side show how much ordinary glass distorts colour and cuts contrast. Museum glass practically disappears.
What „ordinary“ glass is
Polystyrene glazing, acrylic, float glass — all cheap, all available, all reflective. None of it blocks UV. For posters in the kitchen or a gift print in a child's room it is perfectly fine. I don't put works or originals behind it.
When ordinary is enough and when museum is an investment
The rule I give clients: if you would sell the work in ten years for more than you pay for museum glass, use museum glass. Originals, signed prints, a photograph of your grandmother, artist's editions — all cases where you want it to last.
Reproductions, posters, children's drawings for the fridge — ordinary glass will do. No point firing money at them.
What it does over 20 years
I have a piece in the workshop that I framed in 2003. It had an acid-free mat and Artglass AR70. This year I opened it for remounting — it looks exactly as it did then. No yellow patches, no fading.
Next to it I keep an old frame from the nineties with ordinary glass and an acidic mat, for comparison. That picture has greyed by two stops and there are brown lines around the mat. That is the difference 1,800 CZK more per m² of glazing buys.
Marek Homolka
Third-generation framer · RDH Rámy, Přísečná
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