Current art preservation techniques include treatments to stone – the material that makes up most, if not all, pieces of public art in Venice. The ultimate goal of stone preservation is to protect it from moisture by sealing the pores that exist on the surface of the object. If the object is not fixed in place, it can be detached from the wall and immersed it in a solvent to seal the stone’s pores. More often than not, however, the pieces are mounted on the side of buildings, and removing them is damagin and would do more harm than good. In these cases, the restorer is limited to a paint or spray application. This only applies to the exposed portions of the piece; some faces are inaccessible, and many have parts that abut the building to which they are mounted, occasionally leading to further structural damage rather than conservation. The damage happens during freeze and thaw cycles that happen naturally with the changing seasons, when the moisture ..→
