Conservation of an Isis statue, Bequest Sir Robert Mond

Royal Ontario Museum blog  (Susan Stock and Franziska Schlicht, ROM Conservation)

With Photographs.

948.34.41, Seated Isis, was brought to conservation in 1994 for examination and cleaning.  It was clear that the head had been over-cleaned and the body was over-restored.  The previous restoration had left the sculpture reclining, incorrectly, on a modern throne.  Horus, as a young boy, would have sat across her lap, but he is missing.

My job was to improve the appearance of the object in preparation for display.

The first step was to remove all previous restoration to assess how much of the original existed and its condition.  There were some spots of active corrosion, bronze disease, on the back of the head.  We would look for the original patina or surface, a corrosion pseudomorph, representing the original surface of the object.

Much of the body required cleaning to remove surface repairs and filler; then, corrosion overburden to reveal detail and shape.