In January, 2013 I was part of a small team from
Cliveden Conservation who moved a large collection of Greek and Roman sculptures at the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
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| The sculpture gallery before work began. |
The large gallery near the entrance to the museum needed to be emptied to prepare for a redecoration project. All of the statues, some weighing around 1.8 tons were moved into store or the centre of the room where they were wrapped for protection.
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| One of the larger statues removed from niche. |
The large statues were moved with a gantry and lowered onto specially made pallets for transportation. Smaller statues were slid onto scissor lifts and put into the stone store in the museum.
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| Dismantling an object prior to removal from gallery. |
Some of the items were held together in sections by pins and had to be dismantled in situ to ensure safe handling.
Next Friday's archive post will be about a project at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
