Unnumbered pageScan 1 of 2
Roman-Germanic Central Museum MAINZ
[printed: Tgb. no. 68/440] 65 Mainz, 7.2.68
Printed: Ernst-Ludwig-Platz 24/10
Handwritten: circled mark, top right
Handwritten: red annotation, illegible, top right
Mr Prof.Dr.Claude F.A.Schaeffer Collège de France Chair of Archaeology of Asia Western 11, Place Marcellin-Berthelot P.a.r.i.s (5th) France
Handwritten: illegible annotation (1.2. v.p.)
Dear, very honoured Professor Schaeffer,
Many thanks for your letter of 1.2. Mr Karageorghis was not with us in Mainz. We would very much have liked to receive him in our guestroom and shown him our workshops. The Director of the Prehistoric State Collection Munich, Mr Dr Kellner called me on his behalf and asked whether we were willing to restore a bronze sheet vessel of the 7th century for Mr Karageorghis to restore, since it could not be conserved for him in Cyprus. I agreed. Mr Karageorghis will come to Mainz with the vessel at a later date since at present he had no time for a visit. Now regarding Mr Lagarce's visit. In the foreseeable future a visit by Mr Lagarce does not seem sensible to me. [ We had to isolate all the bronzes under nitrogen. For treatment they had to be slowly dried out. It turned out, ve that with a larger number of pieces the entire interior has been converted into oxides. On exposure to atmospheric oxygen, this already fine-grained oxide converted into a light green powder, with an increase in volume of a considerable amount. I.e. the pieces began to swell and disintegrate. To slow this process we have placed all the pieces in a vessel under nitrogen, after first drying them in our dryingcabinets. The disintegration process is currently arrested We now take one piece after another and conserve them properly. At present 2 swords are in work, which will soon be finished . Here, with an American special blower the pulverised core is removed and the cavity flushed out with synthetic resin. We can already say today that the bronzes, if they remain in
All correspondence should be addressed to the Central Museum, not to individual persons
Printed: Telephone 2 87 44 and 2 87 45 - Postal cheque account Frankfurt am Main No 64 66 - Bank account Mainzer Volksbank Account No. 27 47
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain