In a quiet lab at the DeYoung Museum, art conservators are combining centuries-old clues with modern technology to prepare ancient artifacts for public display. "They are trying to keep track of the pieces of stone that they found. So, they wrote Figura Del Sarcophago number 14," said art conservator Jane Williams, pointing to faint painted numbers left by early archaeologists on an ancient sarcophagus.
Williams and her colleagues in the museum's Objects Lab are restoring pieces, including a sarcophagus lid, for an upcoming Etruscan dynasty exhibit at the Legion of Honor. The show will highlight the civilization that dominated central Italy for centuries before the rise of Rome.
