Bronze statues are all over the place. Keeping them clean seems like quite a challenge! But apparently, bronze statues need only the most basic levels of care in order to look fairly presentable. All that’s required is good ol’ soap and water. That’s it! Dish soap and warm water. Go figure!
Hard to believe, of course, given the state of your typical bronze sculpture in the parks or on the street. And just why are so many made of bronze in the first place? Well, it turns out that bronze has some qualities that make a sculptor’s job that much easier.
They’re strong but not brittle, so that a lot more daring action poses may be used with less visually intrusive supports. They also expand just a little right before setting so that a mold is likely to be completely filled, down to the slightest detail.
Interestingly, the cleaning of iron statues, a less popular but still fairly common type of sculpture, will probably be a lot more involved. Rust or peeling paint might need to be removed first. Utilizing sandpaper should suffice, and then it’s on to the soap and water! Stone statues, however, generally require no soap at all except in cases of heaving staining. White marble statues, however, must not come into contact with bleach.
Regular exposure to the chemical will almost definitely damage the marble! In fact, there is nearly never a good reason to use bleach with statuary, besides the fact that it is harmful to the environment, killing any plant it touches.
Now all this sounds straightforward enough. So why are all the bronze, iron, and marble statues out there so dirty? In a word, money – or the lack thereof, rather. Local and national parks departments are among the very first to be cut back in an budget shakeup, and unfortunately this is an even worse recession than any previous within the past seventy-five years!