Now that the repairs to the metal skin are complete, the team from UHP Projects. Inc. (Ultra High Pressure Projects) is back and have started to paint the statue. Discussions between the team at UHP Projects, Inc. and the conservator Mark Rabinowitz at Conservation Solutions, Inc. plan out the methods to be used in re-painting the sculpture. To prolong the life of this paint system, the surface of the metal needs to prepared to achieve a good, and strong bond with the paint. A very clean metal surface is needed, and to achieve this both the interior and the exterior were rinsed with a dilute phosphoric acid solution. Painting will be done both inside and outside, and consist of a white acrylic based primer, followed by a green acrylic enamel topcoat. The paint is manufactured to be used in outdoor applications. Normal household paint rollers are initially being used to apply the primer because the wind is fairly strong today in Brooklyn and it may be difficult to control a spray application of paint. These are just some of the conditions that conservators need to cope with in an outdoor environment. The painting should continue for the next few days, please stop by the museum and have a first hand look if you are able.

Lisa Bruno, Conservator of Objects

Many of the multiple layers of failing paint found on the statue contained heavy metals, such as lead, which was a common ingredient in paint products in the United States up until 1978. Due to the hazards of lead associated with public health, the paint on this statue needed to be removed and disposed of in a manner that was safe and in full accordance with existing laws and regulations, dealing with hazardous waste disposal. The large blue tank along side the statue was used to catch and contain the paint during removal. This inevitable necessity has added costs to the conservation project.

The installation of the Museum’s Statue of Liberty replica and the associated conservation project were made possible by the generosity of The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust. Additional support was given by the New York State Assembly and its Brooklyn Delegation, and John and Diana Herzog.

Public support through both governmental agencies and individual donations is vital to support the collections in the Brooklyn Museum. Conservation projects such as this one will guarantee that the Museum remains a vibrant institution, serving its public's needs. If you would like to lend your support to these collections, one way is to become a member of the Museum. Please contact

membership@brooklynmuseum.org

Lisa Bruno, Objects Conservator

Lisa has been giving you a wonderful overview of the on going process. I will confine myself to details specific to the work.

Works of art are technical productions. Sculptures are usually made using industrial or building craft techniques which have been transferred from their original purposes to the making of art. In the case of this Statue of Liberty, much of the techniques that were used were transferred from boat- and auto manufacturing processes. The W H Mullins company, who likely made this work, developed their skills in forming metal skins in manufacturing metal boats. There are still groups involved in the collection and repair of these fascinating artifacts. You can find out more about them at http://www.mullinsboats.com/

The stiff galvanized steel sheets were formed using an "English Wheel", a rolling device that was used in the making of automoble body parts. An operator would hold the flat sheets between the wheels and by pressing the sheet against it under pressure could form pockets and bend 3 dimensional shapes. http://www.irvansmith.com/catalog2/english_wheels.shtml

This process requires a great deal of hand work and was replaced in auto manufacturing by the use of presses with dies but in the early days an operator formed each sheet by hand with this method.

We are using a similar technology transfer in repairing the skin. Tools from auto body work, including MIG welding and, later, resinous body fillers, are used to repair the rusted sections. Later, like in auto body repairs, the sections will be sanded and painted to blend with the overall surface.

The repairs to the skin are working.
The newly galvanized steel patches are riveted, and then welded in place. It's not raining today, enabling the repairs to proceed without interruption. When the statue was made in the late 19th c., the process of galvanizing sheet iron or steel was done by dipping the entire sheet into a molten bath of zinc. As the liquid zinc cools, crystals form, creating the characteristic look of galvanized metal. An electroplating process today forms most galvanized sheet steel. This results in a thinner, and likely more uniform deposit of zinc.
These new patches appear shiny because the zinc has not yet oxidized and darkened.

The red rectangle in this picture is a newly applied priming paint layer over a patch. The statue is scheduled to be re-painted at the end of the May, and it will likely rain again before the re-painting. The red paint is a protective layer to prevent corrosion of the new welds and patches, before the new paint is applied. This will help in getting a good bond of the new paint layers to the metal.

Lisa Bruno
Conservator of Objects

It is not fun working in the rain. The team from Conservation Solutions continue the work on the statue, despite the numerous, and often heavy showers we are having in Brooklyn.

Most people think conservation is glamorous, and it is a very interesting, challenging profession that has given me the opportunity to travel and see amazing things, but there are also many times and situations that are the complete opposite of glamorous. Working outdoors, in the pouring rain is one of those times.

A few of
the team members are inside the statue with wire brushes scraping off the paint on the iron armature that supports the outer metal sheet.
This image shows the interior, as looking up into the statue. The center element is a staircase. When the object was originally installed on the roof of the Liberty Warehouse, we were told that one could walk up the stairs and look down Broadway through Liberty's eyes. As with most stories, there are only elements of truth. The stairs do access the top of the statue, but there is no evidence of openings in the eyes for viewing.
In-between breaks in the showers, the team works on developing the procedure to repair the holes in the metal skin. It is important for the preservation of the object to have the outer skin be as water tight as possible.

The new metal patches will be riveted in place, following the techniques of manufacture, but this will not give a completely water tight seal. The original sections of metal sheet were riveted and then soldered to one another to create a seal. Because the original metal has developed a corrosion surface or patina, new solder is no longer able to bond well to this corroded surface.
The team is now in the process of trying MIG welding, (Metal Inert Gas), also sometimes known as Gas Metal Arc Welding. A wire of metal is sent through the tip of the gun by the welding machine, which is why it is also called a semi-automatic process. There is nothing simple about it though when dealing with a surface of over 200 year old metal, while standing on a piece of lift equipment, 20 feet up from the ground, in the rain. I'll keep you posted. If you are in NYC, please stop by the Brooklyn Museum and you can see the progress yourself.

Lisa Bruno
Conservator of Objects

Now that the exterior paint removal is complete, the more tedious, but very important work of prepping the interior surface of the statue has begun. The interior and exterior will be painted, which should provide a level of protection against corrosion. To get a good bond between the new paint layer and the metal, all of the loose and unstable paint layers need to be removed. On the interior of the statue, this has to be done by hand. It is an exacting and time-consuming process.

Some of you may be wondering exactly what is an art conservator and how anyone discovers this relatively obscure field that is a combination of studio art, materials science, and art history.

For me, it was my high school art teacher showing me an article in the New York Times about conservators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, looking at Rembrandt paintings with x-radiographs in order to discover which ones might be fakes. Many years later, I find myself working as an objects conservator at the Brooklyn Museum, where we are currently looking at limestone relief fragments to determine which ones might be fake.

In the past, most conservators apprenticed to gain experience I the field. Now, there are four graduate programs in the United Statues offering Master’s Degrees in Art Conservation. They are the following:

Art Conservation Department, Buffalo State College, artcon@buffalostate.edu; http://www.buffalostate.edu/depts/artconservation

Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Michele.marincola@nyu.edu

Getty Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation, University of California, Los Angeles, acordts@ucla.edu; http://ioa.ucla.edu/conservation

Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, dhnorris@udel.edu

There are additionally other programs in the field of architectural preservation. Architectural conservators will often work on large sculptural projects, such as the Brooklyn Museum’s Replica of the Statue of Liberty. Two are offered at the following Universities:

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York City, jf2060@columbia.edu; www.archcolumbia.edu

University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, fgmatero@design.upenn.edu

For information on selecting a conservator, please contact The American Institute for Conservation at info@aic-faic.org, or visit their website at www.aic-faic.org

Lisa Bruno, Conservator of Objects

The staff at Conservation Solutions, Inc. are beginning to make the structural repairs to the metal skin.

Most of the holes in the object are located in the sections of galvanized sheet iron. In the photo above, the foot is made from zinc sheet, whereas the drapery for the garment is galvanized iron. The zinc plating provides a sacrificial layer to inhibit corrosion of the underlying iron, however eventually; the iron will corrode in a harsh outdoor environment. Given that the statue has been exposed to the elements in New York City since the late 19^th c., the zinc coating appears to have functioned very well. There are not a significant amount of holes.

The repairs will mimic and be similar to the original methods of manufacture. After the ragged edges of the unstable iron sheet are mechanically cut back, as you see in this image, a new sheet of galvanized iron will be riveted in place, similar to how the original galvanized sheet was riveted as you can see in the detail of the drapery. The unstable edge needs to be cut to provide a sound surface for riveting. The difficulty in cleaning up the rough, very corroded edges of the losses will be avoiding the underlying structure of iron to which the galvanized sheet is attached. This interior structure provides the support for the sheet iron, and is essential for the structural stability of the statue. Lisa Bruno Conservator of Objects, Brooklyn Museum

As of this past weekend, the layers of flaking paint were removed, making it possible to finally see the underlying structure and methods of manufacture.

As the Conservator from Conservation Solutions, Mark Rabinowitz has pointed out, the head and hands are formed from sheet zinc, rather than galvanized (zinc plated) iron. Zinc as a metal is more malleable then sheet iron, and would have been easier to work with to create the details needed for facial features.


This is an image from the 1960's of a zinc sculpture of a Lion from El Dorado Carousel at Coney Island in Brooklyn. The lion had been painted when it was part of the structure in the amusement park. In 2004, John Campbell, then a graduate student in the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (conservation.program@nyu.edu) undertook a research project to determine a possible paint scheme. With cross sections of the small amount of existing paint, he determined that the lion was likely painted a gold color with bronze metallic paint.

Because barely any of the paint existed by the time the lion came to the museum's collection, unlike the Replica of the Statue of Liberty, the museum's curators and conservators decided to not re-paint the object during its recent conservation in 2004. We opted instead to preserve the remnants of the original paint, and show the object as unpainted; as it had been known for over 40 years.




This image shows the lion being rigged to the roof of the museum, adjacent to the Statue of Liberty. The firm doing the work is a company specializing in the rigging and movement of art objects, Mariano Brothers, Inc.
www.marianobrothersinc.com

As the work proceeds with Liberty, we hope to show you details of the structure.

Lisa Bruno
Conservator of Objects

The paint removal is complete on the exterior. This has revealed how the fabricators overcame the difficulties of working with sheet steel in forming intricate and highly 3 dimensional shapes...they abandoned it! It turns out that the head, hands and toes are actually formed from zinc which was then soldered and riveted to the steel skin. This allowed them to create the more highly figured surfaces. The head is particularly well formed and its fully articulated features contrasts with the more generalized drapery.

Mark Rabinowitz

As the paint is removed, the artistry that went into the fabrication of the sculpture becomes more apparant. One can not discern the effort that went into the careful folding of the drapery. The material, galvanized sheet steel, is a difficult material to form and is not as receptive to shaping as copper or zinc, like the nearby lion on the museum's roof. These other more commonly used sheet metal sculpture materials form freely, leaving the surface smooth, while the sheet steel is resistant and wrinkles and buckles under the effort that was made.

Looking closely at the cleaned sculpture, you can make out the rivet heads that hold the sheets together and the screw heads that attach those sheets to the interior armature, the structure that holds the sculpture up.

Mark Rabinowitz
Senior Conservator
Conservation Solutions, Inc.

The paint layers on the statue are unstable, making it necessary to remove them entirely, for the preservation of the object. The surface has always been painted. In August of 2005, cross sections of the paint layers were made and analyzed by the contract conservation firm doing this treatment - Conservation Solutions. (www.conservation solutions.com) The cross sections showed 10 t0 17 layers of paint. The paint contains heavy metals that need to be contained during removal.

Sharon and Rodney of Ultra High Pressure Projects, Inc. (www.uhpprojects.com) are preparing to set up the tent structure to contain the paint during removal.

Sharon is proud to be the company's first woman project manager.

UHP projects is a firm specializing in paint removal and painting. They have worked on the Saturn 5 Rocket, and the USS Wisconsin Battleship. The ultra high pressure water system uses extremely fine nozzles made out of sapphires to propel a fine, yet powerful spray of water on the paint surface. In the case of the Brooklyn Museum's statue, the pressure is approximately 40,000 pounds per square inch. This safely removes the paint without disturbing the underlying galvanized (zinc plating) on the iron sheet. Richard Dupuy, UHP President likes the innovated clean technology, which is contollable and leaves no grit behind, which often is the case with abrasive blasting procedures.
A giant containment tent is built with nylon fabric and lift equipment to assist in directing the paint and water into the large, blue storage tank seen in the photo. Bruce of UHP is on one of the lifts, directing the water spray to the front of the statue.

The paint removal is expected to be complete by the end of Sunday. If you would like to see the conservation in action, please stop by the Brooklyn Museum this weekend. May 6th will be First Saturday at the Museum. The Museum is open until 11pm on the first Saturday of every month. There is something for everyone, including, music, art, and gallery talks. For the June First Saturday, Objects Conservators will be talking about the treatment, but on this First Saturday, you can see the treatment in action.
Lisa Bruno Conservator of Objects

The Museum’s replica of the Statue of Liberty had been on top of the Liberty Warehouse on 64^th, and Broadway since it was made around 1900. The statue was removed from the building in 2002 and transported to the Museum where it was installed in its present location in the parking lot in 2005.

The Museum’s statue is made of many thin metal sheets that are mechanically secured to an interior armature, much like the manufacturing techniques of the original Statue of Liberty installed in 1885. The difference is the Museum’s statue is made of painted galvanized iron sheets, whereas the Lady in the harbor is made of copper sheeting, and the present color is the result of a corrosion patina.

The replica was routinely re-painted as part of the building’s maintenance. Examination of the numerous paint layers indicates that initially the statue was brown. The original statue’s metal surface could have aged to a brown patina by the turn of the 19th century when the replica was first painted. As the patina on the Lady in the Harbor changed becoming the familiar green we know today, the paint layers on the Museum’s lady could also have been changed to match.

The Museum is undertaking a conservation treatment to remove the unstable paint layers,

The contract conservation firm that will be treating the replication is Conservation Solutions. Their web site is http://www.conservationsolution.com/. The treatment will start on May 5 with the delivery of a scissor lift which will accommodate the cleaning with high pressure water removing the layers of paint, repairing losses and unstable areas in the underlying metal structure, and repainting the statue in a green similar to the patina now on the original, using a paint system formulated for outdoor use. The images show the set up for the paint containment before water blasting.

The treatment is expected to be complete by June 1st. Check back for daily postings on the progress.

Lisa Bruno
Conservator of Objects
Brooklyn Museum