Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

We’ve got something very cool going on!  Follow us on Twitter today to get our updates—we are going to be tweeting live as curators and conservators take four mummies in the Museum’s collection to the North Shore University Hospital for CT scanning.

Update: we are using hashtag #mummyCT:

Our Tweets and with everyone!

In preparation for renovation to the glass corridor roof, two of the museum’s exterior architectural elements, a stone dragon and a zinc lion, needed to be temporarily relocated for safekeeping.

The dragon is carved from limestone and although the artist is unknown, it was likely made in the early 20th century. The sculpture’s original perching place was on an insurance building in Manhattan’s financial district, somewhere near Liberty and Williams Streets. The dragon came to the museum as a gift in 1974. The zinc lion is one of three lions originally associated with the “El Dorado” carousel in Coney Island Brooklyn. This carousel was manufactured in Leipzig by Hugo Haas for King William II, and imported to Coney Island in 1910, where it was originally shown on Surf Avenue near Dreamland and Luna Park. The lions and carousel survived the 1911 Dreamland fire and were relocated to Steeplechase Park where the front façade, including the lions, was separated from the carousel and installed as a doorway to the “Barrel of Fun.” In 1923, the carousel pavilion enclosure was dismantled and the three lions were installed at another site in the amusement park where they remained until Steeplechase Park closed in 1964. The lion was donated to the museum in 1966.

In order to move the sculptures to their temporary home, Mariano Brothers, Inc., a company specializing in the rigging and movement of art objects was contracted.

The lion was the first to be lifted. High strength rigging straps were secured around the lion and its cement base to ensure that it was properly supported and safe as it was removed from the roof. The hook on a truck mounted crane was then attached to the rigging straps and the lion was gently transported to the flatbed truck below.

The dragon was the next to be lifted, however first it transported on a pallet jack to the other end of the roof so the crane could reach it.

Following the same procedure as the lion, the dragon was safely hoisted onto the flatbed truck.

Once both sculptures were secured on the truck they were driven to their new temporary home. While the sculptures are on the ground Conservation is going to take the opportunity to examine and clean both of the sculptures. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts on the treatment of the dragon and lion this summer.

Thothirdes may be familiar to those of you who have seen her on display in the 3rd floor Egyptian Galleries.  She was deinstalled and brought up to the lab this week so that we could prepare her for a trip to the hospital.  Fortunately, her mummy seems to not have been disturbed, and she is a good candidate for the CT (computed tomography scanning) we are planning on doing at North Shore University Hospital.

X-radiographs were take in the 1930’s of this mummy.  Unfortunately, those radiographs were made using nitrate based filmed and are no longer in a state of preservation to be of use.

When we removed her body from the coffin, the beautiful painting below was revealed.  The coffin, without the body, is now on back on display in the 3rd floor galleries.  You can come by and see this painting until the end of June when we plan on returning Thothirdes’s body to her coffin.

In addition to the painting on the inside, her coffin is painted on all sides, including the underside as seen here in this image.

We look forward to sharing the information about Thothirdes that might be revealed in the CT scans.

Lisa Bruno

Objects Conservator

In addition to continuing to x-ray the animal mummies,  the Conservation Lab has started preparing to send several human mummies to North Shore University Hospital. Some readers of this blog may remember that we took the Mummy Demetrius to North Shore for computed tomography or CT scanning before touring as part of the exhibition To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum.  Demetrius and this exhibition are currently at the Columbus Museum of Art, in Ohio.

The first step before traveling the mummies to the hospital is an examination to determine if they are stable and in a state of preservation that makes CT scanning worth the effort. This week, we examined one of the humans that has been in the museum since 1937.

The mummy and his coffin have been in storage, and neither the Curatorial Department nor the Conservation Lab had any previous record of the coffin having been opened in Brooklyn.

The lid of the coffin was sealed shut due to a previous mounting added when it was part of the Collection at the New York Historical Society.  The coffin was brought to the lab in order to document the condition and remove the lid.

Once we gained access to the interior, we found inside a mummy covered with a thick layer of dust, and evidence of unwrapping.

Through x-radiography, it was determined that the torso, although extant, was disturbed, and that the soft tissues were not likely present.  CT scans are very useful at looking at soft tissues, while traditional x-rays are sufficient when examining denser substances such as bones.

Kerith Koss, the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Objects Conservation pieced together images of the x-rays so that we have a better idea of the mummy’s overall state of preservation.

In consulting with the radiologists at the hospital, we have decided to not send this mummy for CT scanning, as there is likely not more information to be gained. However, while in the lab, he did get a much needed vacuuming. Stay tuned for more updates of this project.

Lisa Bruno

Have you ever had one of those days where everything falls into place? When Eugenie Tsai blogged about Valerie Hegarty’s Fallen Bierstadt back in October, she mentioned we needed to do a follow-up post with our paintings conservator, Carolyn Tomkiewicz.  Eugenie said we needed get her to explain the process of arranging the debris.  This piqued my interest, but I got a little busy and forgot to follow-up with Carolyn.  Last Monday, I was touring a couple of friends around the Museum, which was closed for the day, and as we entered 21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum, I spotted Carolyn on the floor with the debris:

Luckily, we all had plenty of cameras to document the moment and Carolyn was gracious enough to give us a quick on-camera video interview about what in the world she was doing. So, now, meet the conservator:

Having trouble viewing the video? It’s also up on YouTube.