Expert team works to prepare ancient Etruscan exhibit this summer at Legion of Honor

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In a quiet lab at the DeYoung Museum, art conservators are combining centuries-old clues with modern technology to prepare ancient artifacts for public display.

“They are trying to keep track of the pieces of stone that they found. So, they wrote Figura Del Sarcophago number 14,” said art conservator Jane Williams, pointing to faint painted numbers left by early archaeologists on an ancient sarcophagus.

Williams and her colleagues in the museum’s Objects Lab are restoring pieces, including a sarcophagus lid, for an upcoming Etruscan dynasty exhibit at the Legion of Honor.

The show will highlight the civilization that dominated central Italy for centuries before the rise of Rome.

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“They were there first, and they were incredibly skilled craftspeople working, working, to make beautiful things that they used in their everyday lives and then took with them to the afterlives in, in their tombs,” Williams said.

The team uses digital imaging and 3D-printed models to determine how damaged sections can be safely rejoined. Williams said the models helped her see “the fragments slide together and it showed me that they would go back together quite tightly.”

Some restorations require hand-crafted reproductions. Assistant Conservator Abigail Rodriguez is making replacement rings for a piece of bucchero, a black Etruscan ceramic designed to resemble metal.

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“So it’s a unique ceramic where that is often considered like the Etruscans major ceramic manufacturer, and it’s emulating metal. So that’s probably why you’re seeing that. It’s got a lot of different elements that are part of that metal work tradition,” Rodriguez said.

The exhibit is set to open at the Legion of Honor, from May 2 to September 20 just a few miles from the DeYoung, offering visitors a close look at artifacts that bridge the ancient and modern worlds.

Tickets can be purchased online here.