The conservation of the sculpture work of the National Monument in Amsterdam
conference paper
The National Monument in Amsterdam (1954-'56), built as a memorial to the fallen of World War II, was restored in 1997-'98. The main material used was travertine from Tuscany (Italy), both employed for cladding the 20-m high pylon, constituting the soul of the monument, and the relieves and free standing statues connected to it. The intemal structure of the pylon consisted of concrete (up to 8 m) and brick masonry (rest of construction). Self-supporting travertine slabs were used for the cladding. The reason for investigating the state of preservation of the monument and taking conservation measures laid in the detachment and collapse of a part of one of the slabs. The investigations resulted in the assessment of severe frost damage to the brick structure and various cracks in the travertine slabs and sculpture work, which also showed surface weathering, including the loss of details. The monument was completely dismantled. The intemal concrete and brick structure were substituted with a prefab concrete one, and the travertine relieves and statues were treated with polymethyl meta-acrylate (PMMA). This paper deals with the results of the conservation treatment of the sculpture work. Both in the assessment of the decay and weathering of the relieves and the statues, and in the evaluation on the treatment, Polarising and Fluorescent Microscopy (PFM) was used. This technique proved to be very suitable for the evaluation of both the deterioration and the treatment.
TNO Identifier
329685
Publisher
Elsevier
Source title
Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone, Venice, Italy, 19-24 June 2000
Editor(s)
Fassina, V.
Collation
9 p.
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Pages
523-531
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