Apart from such inherent vices, a work may suffer simply because it is a compelling object. The hands of a viewer reaching to fleetingly explore the actual texture of a surface leave behind a residue of oils and grime. Rings or buttons or fingernails may mar the surface. In time, soil and scratches multiply and the original work becomes defaced. These problems and dozens of combinations and variations the conservator must face.
Some difficulties have quick solutions.
More usually, conservations and restoration is painstaking business. Compounding the problems themselves is the fact that the contemporary conservator refuses to simply repaint where part of an image is lost. Further, conservation now is done so that it may be reversed. The intent is to recover the artist's intent as fully as possible without supplying counterfeit passages which fuse with and become a permanent part of the work. This exhibition examines the conservation of four works from the Sheldon collections, each of which bringing a distinct set of difficulties to the complex process of restoring and preserving a work of art.