Girona, 28 Dec. (Europe press)-
The Gala-Salvador Dalí de Figueres Foundation (Girona) has needed specialists from different disciplines-jewelry, chemistry, gemology and mineralogy-to restore one of the minerals of Salvador Dalí 's work 'the Cross of the Angel', the pyrita-marasite, which has been degraded "by a punctual increase in relative humidity and a possible bacterial attack."
The foundation explained it in a statement this Monday, and added that in Dalí 's words the work represents "the treatise of existence: the gradual transformation from the mineral world to the angel".
According to reports, the Marcaite reacts to the presence of moisture oxidizing and generating sulfates, causing its disaggregation, so that scientists have reduced relative humidity inside a sealed container.
How to get a security clearance?
— Bradford Sims Sat Feb 23 18:12:52 +0000 2019
They have also applied ammonia vapours to neutralize the possible presence of bacteria and sent a sulphide sample to laboratories in Korea to "carry out DNA sequencing and determine whether bacteria are present".
The collaboration with experts from different fields related to jewellery has allowed the foundation to deepen the study of 'the Cross of the Angel' and to assess possible actions to prevent a repetition of the situation, while continuing to study how to achieve the optimal state inside the display case.
This is the first time that one of the 38 jewels in the Owen Cheatham collection requires "the intervention of such a diverse multidisciplinary team," they have explained.
The work has lasted six months, but they continue to closely monitor the state of the work while waiting for DNA sequencing results.