Venus Italica: From Splitsville to Whole Again

There’s nothing like receiving a shipment containing a sculpture and hearing loose parts moving around inside the box. That was the horror that we encountered with a marble Venus Italica we got.

Top and bottom halves of Venus Italica, straight out of the box

I think this was our first marble and the shipping company, obviously inexperienced with packing sculpture, allowed it to move around in the box, shearing the piece along the way. Fortunately, the break was clean, and it was important to gather up all the tiny bits for reassembly. Taking both top and bottom, we aligned carefully and reattached. Other chipped areas were patched (with the existing aforementioned broken chips whenever possible), and the joins surface treated to hide the break lines.

Broken halves aligned

Post-repair, a clean sculpture