Dear Marc,

thank you for your clear words. Wrong cleaning can destroy pictures totally. I remember the "Desmoiselles d' Avignon"...

Today, cleaning oil and acrylic paintings is left as one of the maior task for restorers in a time of small budgets. But on the other hand, many (freelancer) restorers spent a lot of time by cleaning paintings with the wrong methods. Checking the respective literature, I may contribute a list of *wrong* measures:

1) Using human saliva (not only after dinner...)
2) Using articial saliva
3) Using breadcrumbs
4) Using aqua destillata
5) Using unspecified household detergents (even in small dissolutions)
6) Using q-tips or similar cotton-wool-sticks.

For modern and quick methods of cleanings (f.e.: always clean along the painting structure not in squares) and chemicals see for example the books by the specialist: 

Eipper, Paul-Bernhard, chief picture restorer at the large museum agglomeration of Joanneum, Styria, Austria.

Hope, this helps.



Christian

 
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