The conservative treatment
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Diocesan Commission for the Exposition of the Shroud

Preservation work on the Shroud:
The presentation of Mechtild Flury-Lemberg's book

On 29 May 2003 at the Archbishopric of Turin His Eminence Cardinal Severino Poletto, Dr Mechtild Flury Lemberg and Dr Irene Tomedi presented Dr Flury-Lemberg's book Sindone 2002. L'intervento conservativo.

This is the official version, published by the Casa Editrice della Diocesi di Torino (ODPF) with the support of the Holy Shroud Guild, the historical association of scholars of the Shroud in the United States, and it is available in three languages (Italian, English and German). At the presentation there were scholars from Italy, Europe and America.
The book describes the work conducted in 2002 which led to the removal of the supporting Holland cloth and patches which had been sewn on in 1534 after the fire of Chambéry and the placing of the Shroud on a new support cloth. Dr Flury-Lemberg was the principal author of this restoration and she has written a detailed account of the various phases of the conservation work. The book contains over 150 hitherto unpublished photographs and schemes describing the phases of the removal of the patches and of the Holland cloth, the elimination of the polluting residues and the anchoring of the Shroud onto a new support fabric of chemically neutral linen.

The author
Among her many appointments, for many years Dr Flury-Lemberg has been the director of the "Abegg Foundation" which specializes in the conservation of textiles and she is internationally acknowledged to be one of the most important experts in the recovery and conservation of ancient fabrics. The Foundation, with its headquarters in Riggisberg near Berne, has both a museum and a laboratory and it is a highly specialised school which has prepared students from all over the world.
Dr Flury Lemberg is considered an authority in the methodology of restoration, and she is above the debates of recent decades. The author is moreover a firm supporter of the criterion of reversibility, considering it an inalienable component of the methodology of restoration of an ancient piece. Dr Flury-Lemberg is also acknowledged to be a great scientific professional, and has been awarded two honoris causa degrees from the Universities of Freiburg and Berne.

The book

The book describes the preservation work in minute detail with the aid of precise photographic documentation. The first part of the volume details the preliminary operations, especially the observations made in the year 2000, which enabled Dr Flury-Lemberg to collect a series of findings which were important for the subsequent phase of the work. The second part describes the various stages of work for the purposes of the conservation of the cloth: the removal of the patches, the Holland Cloth and the material that was the source of the pollution.
In the text it is demonstrated how no invasive intervention was conducted and how material that was already flaking off was collected and accurately catalogued for future research. The author also provides comments and photographs of the various phases during which the Shroud is anchored to the new support cloth, illustrating how it is possible to remove all the stitching without leaving any trace in just one day, thus guaranteeing the absolute reversibility of the conservation work.
The third part of the work was written by Irene Tomedi, the restorer who worked with Dr Flury-Lemberg. It documents the Holland cloth and the patches and provides a detailed description of them together with photographs of what they looked like before and after the work. Finally, in the appendix there is information regarding the new measurements of the Shroud, the position of the supporting stitches (the so-called basting stitches), the position of some loose ends of thread taken from the reverse side, spectre measurements, and photographs taken by the video-microscope.
A further element of interest is the folding chart included in the volume which shows the front and reverse sides of the Shroud in a scale of 1 to 5 on two sides of the same page, like in reality. The chart comes with a grid which is proposed as a work tool to provide a clear map reference of sites on the cloth.
The book provides all scholars and researchers of the Shroud with the reasons, methodologies and results of the restoration work as they were presented to the most accredited scientists involved in studying the Shroud on 12 September 2002. On that occasion the opportunity and correctness of the work for the future conservation of the Shroud was generally acknowledged.

The presentation
Authorities and experts on the Shroud also came from overseas, which testifies to their interest in the work conducted in Turin. Among them was father. Frederick Brinkman, president of the Holy Shroud Guild; the president of the CIELT, the association of Shroud researchers in France; representatives of AMSTAR (USA) and German scholars.
The Cardinal Poletto concluded the presentation with the words that have also been written in the presentation of the volume: "I am sure that this publication will provide convincing reasons of the necessity and great utility of this most recent intervention of restoration for the purposes of the conservation of the Holy Shroud. I therefore hope that it will be understood that the first people to have an interest in the fact that the Shroud should preserve intact the whole of its mysterious value charged with universal significance are we from Turin whose privilege it is to have conserved it in our Cathedral for over four centuries."

Images of Shroud after the conservative treatment: http://www.sindone.org/it/storia/restauro.htm.

Turin, June 11 2003

[ Italiano - Francese - Inglese - Foto di presentazione ]