Conservation-restoration process of the collection of Iberian votive offerings
![](https://www.barcelona.cat/museufredericmares/sites/default/files/intervenciexvotsibrics.625.jpg)
![](https://www.barcelona.cat/museufredericmares/sites/default/files/intervenciexvotsibricsdetall2.163.jpg)
In 2009, dovetailing with the preparation of the catalogue of collections from the ancient world, the conservation process of the collection of 230 bronze Iberian votive offerings got underway. This collection is of immense interest due to the sheer number and diversity of votive offerings included.
The actions conducted have the twofold goal of stopping the corrosion processes and stabilisation in order to ensure their future safekeeping, and recovering the structure and surface details in order to learn more about them and more accurately catalogue the pieces.
The intervention has consisted of eliminating the ancient supports, mechanical surface cleaning, and in the cases in which this has not been enough, chemical cleaning. The most deteriorated pieces were treated with an innovative technology, H and Ar cold plasma (Chemical Institute of Sarrià), as the only valid means of stabilising them.
Article in the Congreso de Conservación y Restauración del Patrimonio Metálico, 2008 (PDF)