Funding from the Rotorua Trust is helping restore a remarkable set of sculptures at the Rotorua Museum.
The Trust gave $5,000 towards the cost of cleaning and repairing the collection of Summers’ Sculptures, bought when the original Bath House building opened in 1908.
Made from Italian Carrara marble, the sculptures were carved by father and son artists Charles Francis Summers Senior and Junior. This is the world’s largest collection of their work and they have survived through all the building’s changes, from a medical facility through the years of the Tudor Towers restaurant and nightclub.
However, wear and tear over the years saw the sculptures become increasingly grimy and more than 20 parts had been broken off, including fingers, thumbs, hands, toes, noses
and arrows.
The clean-up project started two years ago and an expert stone conservator Marco Burger was brought in from Germany in July this year. He helped train volunteers from Friends of the Rotorua Museum and museum staff on how to clean and care for the collection during the week he was in Rotorua.
Tracey Friend, president of the Friends of Rotorua Museum, says Marco trained them in how to scrupulously clean even small items on the sculptures. One tiny flower, for example, can take as much as an hour to clean.
Marco spent three days training volunteers and they in turn have taught another 10 people the cleaning techniques.
“We couldn’t have done this without the Rotorua Trust,” Tracey says. “It is great because we are on public display when we are doing the cleaning, so people can see how the funds are being used.”
Tracey says the cleaning and restoration work will take a long time. In the meantime, the hunt continues for any parts of the sculptures people may have acquired over the years and which will be gratefully received if returned.
For more information, contact
Tracey Friend President
Friends of the Rotorua Museum
(07) 347 9428