Page 369 - Copper and Bronze in Art: Corrosion, Colorants, Getty Museum Conservation, By David Scott

Conservation Treatments for Bronze Objects

CHAPTER 2 2

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to note, are now consigned to museum storerooms and basements. A knowledge of the chemi­
cal history of treated bronzes is important to an understanding of why certain bronzes look
the way they do, and why some earlier conservation treatments may have been damaging to
the objects they were trying to preserve. This chapter discusses the history of conservation
treatments employed for bronze objects and the effects these treatments may have had on
their appearance, or the preservation of scientific information concerning their environmental
milieu. This history includes events that may have occurred during burial and also since the
bronzes were excavated.