The conservation of an ethnographic multi-material shield made in Malaysia by the Dayak tribe: pictorial surface cleaning and feathers restoration

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Nausicaa Sangiorgi
Freelance professional conservator-restorer of ethnographic and contemporary arts
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0094-6045
Graziella Accorsi
Academy of the Fine Arts in Bologna, Restoration School
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-929X
Maurizio Coladonato
Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6509-0033

Abstract

Ethnographic artifacts are intrinsically fragile, due to the natural constituent materials degradation. A polychrome and polymateric ethnographic shield from Borneo, owned by the National Prehistoric Ethnographic Museum “Luigi Pigorini” in Rome, has been carried out to restoration regarded mainly the painted surface cleaning and the feathers recovery, following criteria such as adopting not invasive methods to preserve the original materials and using eco-sustainable products.

Keywords: Ethnographic arts, Feathers conservation, Funori consolidation, Gellan gel, Cleaning

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