Museum reproduction of metallic archaeological artefacts: from lost wax casting techniques to artificial metals

Abstract

Reproductions of archaeological artefacts play a necessary role in our societies while allowing an induced multiplicity of the original, which supposes benefits for conservation, dissemination and promotion of our heritage. But the reproduction of metal objects has been a challenge for museums and institutions, due to the complexity of emulating metals, and thus, the implementation of traditional techniques such as lost wax casting or electrolytic processes have been set in many cases as the mainly solution. The aim of this paper is to propose an alternative procedure, based on the use of thermosetting resin composites with metallic fillers. A comparison between the solutions provided by artificial metal and artistic casting techniques is done for two cases of study, juxtaposing advantages and limitations of both procedures.

Keywords

• cold-casting metal
• preventive conservation
• metals
• lost wax casting
• reproductions
• archaeology