§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage (1) what action his Department is taking to protect statuary for which he is responsible from further damage due to the careless and unsupervised cleaning of the external fabric of buildings of which they form a part;
(2) if he will make a statement on the circumstances surrounding the damage done to the statues of Inigo Jones and Andrea Palladio by Michael Rysbrack during the external cleaning of the fabric of Chiswick house, London; and what lessons have been learnt arising from this incident.
§ Mr. BrookeThe two statues by Michael Rysbrack were cleaned in 1987, at the same time as the decorative architectural detail of the house, using an air, water and abrasive mixture. Though the cleaning process was criticised at the time, both English Heritage and the leading conservators who were consulted found no evidence of significant damage. English Heritage has since made a major commitment to the conservation of the statuary at Chiswick house and has commissioned a survey of the condition of individual sculptures. On the basis of this survey, it plans to spend over £70,000 over the next five years on the outside statuary at Chiswick. Last autumn, it opened a new gallery at Chiswick house devoted to housing the garden statuary, and it plans to move the Rysbrack statues there next year, until such time as their security can be safeguarded.
English Heritage now has full condition surveys for sculpture at all of its sites, with prioritised action plans, and its architectural conservation branch is currently engaged in Britain's largest research programme on stone decay and treatment.