Specialty

Restoration of Sculpture and Works of Art in Paris

Sculpture breaks clean, and often badly: at the weakest plane of all, the neck, the wrist, the ornament that stands proud. What is done next decides everything — an object glued crooked can only be put right by taking it apart again.

Polychrome wood, marble, plaster, terracotta, ceramics and faience, ivory, resin and vinyl: each material dictates its own adhesive, its own retouching and its own limit. The intervention stays reversible, whatever the material.

What À L’Atelier takes on

Rejoining the fragments

Detached elements are set back on their break with a reversible adhesive, in the order the geometry of the break dictates. An object in several pieces is assembled once.

Filling losses and missing parts

Where a fragment is lost, the missing part is recreated in a compatible material, toned to what lies beside it. When the original has gone without record, the restitution is discussed with you before it is undertaken.

Polychromy and gilding on carved wood

Religious statuary, lacquered sculpture, gilded wood: the polychromy is reattached and then reintegrated, and gold grounds taken up in leaf where that is called for.

Ceramics, faience, porcelain and stoneware

Fragments are rejoined on their break, losses filled, and the retouch laid within the surface of the loss alone — never on the original glaze.

Ivory, organic materials and contemporary works

Ivory moves with humidity and gives way without warning. The resins, vinyls and mixed media of contemporary work raise questions of another kind again, and recent ones.

Work carried out

Real commissions, photographed as they came in and as they left.

Reintegration of the arm of Christ, broken into twenty-four pieces — Michelangelo’s Pietà, plaster — before and after treatment — Reintegration of the arm of Christ, broken into twenty-four piecesMichelangelo’s Pietà, plasterThe arm, broken into twenty-four pieces with losses, reassembled and set back on the work.

Reassembly of fragments and reintegration — The Mischievous Girl, after Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux — before and after treatment — Reassembly of the fragments and reintegrationL’Espiègle, after Jean-Baptiste CarpeauxIt arrived in several fragments, the head separated from the base.

Reassembly, filling and reworking of the gilding — Virgin in carved and polychrome wood — before and after treatment — Reassembly, filling and renewal of the gildingVirgin in carved and polychrome woodIt arrived dismantled: the base separate, the gilded cloud and fragments detached, the wood riddled with flight holes.

Rejoining of fragments and reintegration of the patina — water carrier in plaster — before and after treatment — Bonding of the fragments and reintegration of the patinaplaster water carrierThe jug broken into several fragments.

Removal of old adhesions and overpaint, then reintegration — lion by Antoine-Louis Barye — before and after treatment — Removal of old bonds and overpaint, then reintegrationlion by Antoine-Louis BaryeAn earlier restoration to be undone before restoration could begin: adhesions, overflowing fills and overpaint.

Rejoining of the fragment and cleaning of the marble — sculpture by Edme Marie Cadoux — before and after treatment — Bonding of the fragment and cleaning of the marblesculpture by Edme Marie CadouxBroken during a removal, and darkened by numerous stains and soiling.

Worth knowing

I kept every piece in a bag. Is that any use?

Essential. Bring all of it, down to the dust at the bottom of the bag: the tiny chips from the break serve for the fit, and whatever is kept will not have to be recreated.

Will the repair show afterward?

Not to the eye. The retouch is confined to the surface of the loss and stops at the edge of the original material; it can be told under raking light or a magnifier, which is precisely what the ethical rule requires.

My sculpture is outdoors and deteriorating. What should I do?

The condition report will first determine whether the work can stay outside at all. A great many garden sculptures are as much a matter of preventive conservation — shelter, orientation, dealing with rising damp — as of restoration itself.

Talk to me about your work

The condition report and the estimate are free of charge at À L’Atelier, and commit you to nothing. Describe the work — artist, support, period, dimensions — and its condition, and we will arrange a time.

06 60 94 82 63 contact@a-latelier.fr

28 rue Traversière, 75012 Paris — Gare de Lyon métro
Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. — by appointment only
See every case study

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