Week 28. Final stages of the restoration

The restoration of the frieze carved by Angelo Zanelli at the Altar of the Fatherland is moving toward its final stages. Restorers are finishing the plastering along the joints of the botticino blocks and are wrapping up the final cleaning, concentrating their action on the small statue of Winged Victory.The statuette, which is in the left hand of the Goddess Rome, is made of silver foil, and to restore it to its original splendor it was first subjected to a solvent swab cleaning, to remove the various protective waxes applied in the past, and then to soluble salt packs to remove the oxides deposited over time.