Shinto Shrine – Japan

This Japanese Shinto shrine was buried deep in the Foreign Ethnology collections of Te Papa after it was bequeathed by Henry Stokes Tiffen, 1881. After returning from working at the British Museum, I was keen to use my skills working with oriental materials and treat this neglected shrine. Extremely surface stained from the old museums coal fired heating system and the majority of its paint layers now unattached and loose I embarked on a difficult cleaning and paint stabilization treatment- both activities often integrated due to the paint layer vulnerability.