Europa in Love – Loek Bos

Restoration work to reconstruct the position of the artwork relative to its base.

To reposition the figurine on the base, it was necessary to remove the old restoration so that a new connection could be made. Attempted to soften the old adhesive through gentle heating of the base to 80-90 degrees Celsius. This would not affect the patina but might have given the adhesive some flexibility, allowing the pin to be pulled from the old drill hole. Since this method produced insufficient results, the old pin-hole connection was drilled out using a micro-drill. Old adhesive residues were mechanically removed from both the base and the sculpture. The hole in the figurine was slightly deepened using a micro-drill. A new iron pin was made with a slight curve at one end and precisely fitted into the foot of the sculpture. The hole in the base was drilled to size and threaded. The end of the new pin was oppositely threaded. The new pin-hole connection was glued into the construction with Araldite 2020 two-component adhesive. The adhesive was color-matched using 'Akepox coloring paste' for epoxy-based adhesives to make the bond visually less distracting. Based on an archival photograph, the position of the little bull relative to the base was determined.

The figurine was successfully repositioned on the base with a new pin-hole connection. The position was reconstructed based on an archival photograph. Treatment was carried out in May 2017 at the UvA, in the studio building, under the supervision of metal conservator and university lecturer Tonny Beentjes (t.p.c.beentjes@uva.nl).