ABSTRACT
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek’s collection includes eight mummy portraits of which five are from the Graf collection and three are from W M Flinders Petrie’s Hawara excavation in 1911. This chapter describes how the portraits have been conserved and restored, with special emphasis on problems related to previous treatments performed by Petrie. It deals with the post-excavation damage to the paint layer and the wooden support of a group of mummy portraits. The portraits in question were all executed on wood in a predominantly wax-containing paint layer. The identification of a total of five binding media samples was achieved with the aid of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry on three of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek’s portraits. In the light of the above considerations, as well as practical tests, sturgeon glue was chosen as the adhesive for the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek portraits, since priority was given to its solubility.
