119-CM-2019_Saint-Vincent (AO), Municipality, L. Minguzzi, Men

Description faciltata: 

 

Men is a metal sculpture. 
The artist Luciano Minguzzi created the sculpture in 1969-1970. 
The sculpture represents two men and a woman and recalls the deportation to the concentration camps of the Second World War.
The sculpture was exhibited at the municipality of Saint-Vincent in Valle d'Aosta. 
The sculpture is preserved at Chatillon's Leg Castle. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the statue in 2019-2021. 
The restorers cleaned the sculpture of corroded metal parts (ruined due to contact with air) and old protective products.
They reinforced the basement. 
They did a treatment to protect the metal from contact with air. 
In the end they protected the sculpture with resin and wax. 
 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

Restoration

The restoration of sculpture Men Luciano Minguzzi has constituted a complex case because on the work there were several maintenance and restoration interventions carried out on the occasion of frequent exhibitions. The work has been restored in view of its final location at the Chatillon Leg Castle.
The various phases of the intervention were supported by documentation, diagnostic analyses and cognitive research in order to understand the constituent materials, the executive techniques, the phenomena of degradation and the conservation history.
The certainty of an exhibition in a protected place of the monumental complex has made it possible to maintain the paints applied over the years by the same artist.
Following the preliminary removal of the largest accumulations of earth, tests were carried out to understand the level of final cleaning to be achieved both on the bronze (used for the three figures) and on the iron structures (ante and bases).
On the bronze sculptures, depicting two men and a woman, residues of old waxy protectives, opaque patinas and lowered aesthetic interactions and signs of percolation were removed. 
On the front, the intervention provided for the mechanical removal of the splinters formed due to corrosion processes and responsible for deformations. 
The load-bearing bases, which were severely damaged, were consolidated and supplemented by means of compensation that guaranteed colour and texture similar to those used by the artist and, at the same time, ensured aesthetic and functional recovery.
A rust conversion treatment was also performed to inhibit corrosion. The doors and sculptures have been protected with layers of acrylic resin and microcrystalline wax.
Finally, the pictorial retouching of the numbers present was carried out.

 

Bibliography

M. Demmelbauer, M. Gargano, A. Piccirillo, The Restoration of Men, in Men. Luciano Minguzzi in Valle d'Aosta, Regione autonoma Valle d'Aosta, Aosta, 2024, pp. 11-13.