An interesting problem -- do you try to preserve a famous piece (in this case, Michelangelo's statue of David and remove it from public view or to you attempt drastic measures to prevent it from collapsing. From the London Times:
Michelangelo's David 'at risk of collapse' because of traffic and visitors
Four years after it was last cleaned and repaired Michelangelo's statue of David in Florence is "at risk of collapse", according to a restoration expert.
Antonio Borri, professor of construction engineering at Perugia University and part of the team monitoring the statue's state of conservation, said that cracks which been repaired during a 2004 restoration marking the 500th anniversary of the statue's creation had re-appeared.
A seminar in Florence tomorrow will discuss the options for saving the statue, which is kept at the Galleria dell Accademia and attracts more than a million people a year. These include enclosing it in a protective covering to stop further deterioration and even closing it to the public altogether for a period.
Professor Borri, who is a Florentine, said that the cracks had "re-opened one by one. David is coming apart". He said the blame lay with traffic vibrations and the pressure of thousands of daily visitors. Michelangelo's masterpiece - held by many to be the most perfect representation of the nude male form ever sculpted - was also vulnerable because of its huge size and the poor quality of marble Michelangelo used, Professor Borri said.
For a conservation not to last four years is unthinkable. Titanium skeletal structures are close to my mind these days but I do not see why they could not build a tank around the statue, fill it with a neutral silicone oil, tip it sideways, build a plastic scaffold and CAT Scan it to locate the cracks. Drill come careful holes, cement some titanium rods and bingo -- fixed for the next couple of generations. This way, the problem of the dodgey marble is bypassed. ALL of the cracks and flaws are located and identified (not just those that show up under optical observation) and a protocol for moving the work is established in the event that further repair is needed. And please tell me that the display room in the Uffizi is completely climate controlled down to the gaseous composition of the atmosphere -- not just temp and humidity... The poor marble is something that plagues artists and conservationists everywhere. David was commissioned in 1501 when Mike was a raw 26 years old. He didn't have the money to buy a stunning chunk of Carrerra -- he made due with what he could afford. Other 26-year-old artists have their artwork in a landfill as they never developed a talent. I grew up in Pittsburgh and a lot of the early Andy Warhol works were painted with crappy materials on cardboard boxes. Gorgeous but a conservators timebomb.
