7 July
LIBRARY
La Vénus de
Milo / par Félix Ravaisson [book]
Paris: Librarie
Hachette, 1871 Presented by Mr H.W. Breitenbach
The
conservation of art is debatable: is it preservation or
interference? Like most big questions, there is no easy answer.
The
Romanesque sculptures exhibited at Leeds in 1993 had been cleaned
by
a 3D laser scanner at the conservation unit in Liverpool where
John
Larson, head of conservation at Merseyside, is developing and
promoting laser techniques for cleaning and replicating
sculpture.
This book was written over a century ago by the conservator of
modern sculpture at the Louvre about the restoration of a
particular
statue, the Venus of Milo, which we see packed in a crate for
transportation to the Louvre. At the same time, the Albert
Memorial
was being completed in London. It is about to be unveiled again,
restored to its original splendour by English Heritage.
