How can I fix this broken statue?

March 15, 2022 9:19 AM

I have a small statue made out of solid Andean turquoise (I think). Sadly, while cleaning my apartment I accidentally broke the statue in two. How can I go about fixing it? Is there some kind of glue or cement I could use? Photos inside.

So here are some photos of the statue. I guess in some respects I'm lucky that it broke "cleanly" in two.

Would love to fix this, as it's a treasured memento of my time in Peru, and I'm not 100% sure when I'll be back.

Any ideas? I live in NYC, and have access to a pretty wide variety of hardware stores. Amazon is also an option. Assume I have a reasonable amount of money to spend.

posted by panama joe to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Gorilla Glue would work BUT it expands and foams gradually as it dries. It's hard to babysit the foaming as it takes a long time to cure, and when the foam does leak out of the crack it leaves a very hard-to-remove ugly scum, so I'm here to actually NOT recommend Gorilla Glue, even though I think it would work. It works, but I've never once had it look nice.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:24 AM on March 15, 2022

If you google "art restoration" and "fine art restoration" you're gonna find a lot of options in NYC. Given the importance of this repair, it'd be worth seeking out a couple of estimates just to see what these people, who know what they're doing, will charge.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:33 AM on March 15, 2022

I'm a lapidary (stone) artist. What you want is a high grade two part epoxy. Epoxy330 would probably be sufficient for this, and has a reasonably short curing time (1 day). Museums use Hyxtal, but it's a lot more expensive and has a one week cure time. Hyxtal is also pretty fussy about getting the proportions of the two components right, whereas E330 is pretty lenient. I would use E330 if it were my piece. Amazon has it.

And you can definitly do this yourself.

With epoxy you want to find a way to clamp the pieces securely together while it's curing.

Cyanoacrylate glues (superglue) would also work but is a bit brittle over time.
posted by bluesky78987 at 9:39 AM on March 15, 2022

Kintsugi This lovely statue would be an ideal candidate.
posted by effluvia at 10:34 AM on March 15, 2022

I work in fine art insurance (previously in art restoration for works on paper.) Agreed on the above recommendation to use clear epoxy. If you’d like to talk to an objects conservator in NYC I highly recommend Tatti Conservation. They can probably give you a quick quote over the phone/email at no charge.
posted by rabbitbookworm at 11:06 AM on March 15, 2022

Ooh I'm so glad someone else recommended kintsugi because that's what I came in here go say - if you can find that service, this statue would become even more beautiful because of its damage.
posted by carlypennylane at 11:23 AM on March 15, 2022

It seems to be able to stand on its own, is that right? In that case, it might be fine to just leave it, especially since the break exposes that beautiful stone interior that you can now look at whenever you want.
posted by sageleaf at 12:18 PM on March 15, 2022

Hey all! Thanks for the advice. I'm going to check and see if there are any Kintsugi artists in NYC who would be willing to take this on. Kinda curious how much something like this may cost! But even if that doesn't work out, E330 sounds like a great option.
posted by panama joe at 11:04 AM on March 21, 2022