Exploring Boston: The MFA's Juno

This Spring, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts acquired a colossal Roman statue recognizable as Juno by her diadem, drapery, and facial features (alas, highly abused over the centuries by weather, shipping, vandalism, and misguided early restorations).

I attended a lecture on the history of the statue --- all 15,000 pounds (6-7,000 kg), and 13 feet (4m) of her --- which is undergoing public repair and conservation in a temporary display in the museum. It's the largest Classical marble statue in North America.

(Click for larger:)

The Globe wrote:

Juno [dates to the Trajanic or Hadrianic Period (early second century A.D.) and] was first inventoried in Rome in the 1600s. She traveled from there to Boston in the late 1890s when Charles Franklin Sprague and his wife, Mary Pratt Sprague, bought her and moved her to their property in Brookline, now known as the Brandegee Estate.

The lecture covered:

2011, Examination
December 2011, Worksite setup
December 2011, Removal of the head
December 2011, Structural stabilization of the body
December 2011, Immobilization within the steel frame
December 2011, Transport to storage
January 2012, Preparation for installation
March 2012, Transport into the building
March 2012, Final installation
April 2012, Removal of the steel frame
Plans for further examination and conservation

Lots more info and photos:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/conservation/conservationinaction_juno