Consolidating polychrome limestone altarpieces

Catarina Gersao de Alarcao <catarinaalarcao [at] iol__pt> writes

>The treatment of eight polychrome limestone altarpieces will include
>desalination, stone cleaning and paint consolidation. We will have
>to carry out the consolidation of the fragments after desalination.
>...
>Do you think that applying an ethyl silicate to limestone
>altarpieces is the correct choice?

Try temporary consolidation with Cyclododecane--I have recently been
immersing polychromed objects of smaller scale and tried it
successfully. The problem of longtime immersion is the growth of
algae on organic substrate, especially paint layers. There soon will
be a diploma thesis on the immersion of sandstone at Fachhochschule
Potsdam.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:17
                 Distributed: Thursday, October 6, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-19-17-010
                                  ***