Art conservation

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Sabrina Hetlinger was assessing a broken grave marker, from the Lelna culture, now in Nigeria. They stopped making the markers in the 1940s, she knew, and she also knew that she had all of the pieces, but she was still in the research stage and hadn’t determined the best way to repair it and return it to Philadelphia’s Central High.

Then there is that dirty and chipped plaster bust of Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, from the Supreme Court archives. Student Kate Knesek has been carefully cleaning it, starting with the gentlest tools: deionized water and cotton swabs. She moved up to tougher areas with saliva (the enzymes do wonders, and artificial saliva is a thing), ethanol, vinyl erasers and cosmetic sponges.

Along the way she was also inpainting damaged areas – using a color that doesn’t quite match, so that future conservationists know what’s original and what’s rehab.

To learn more about art conservation at the University of Delaware, visit: www.artcons.udel.edu.