Pressure-sensitive tape and deacidification

Here at Northwestern we have the manuscript of the "Music of
Changes" by John Cage. This manuscript was used to make the actual
printed copy and numbers about 80 pages.  The  paper is like a heavy
tissue that was purchased with the staff lines printed on it.  After
Cage wrote the music he cut out every 3rd staff bar and from the
verso side placed a pressure-sensitive tape over the cut out
openings. I can only presume he did this to add some kind of support
to the openings. We have already removed the still very tacky tape
from a few of the pages with much success using toluene.  After,
the page is deacidified and simply placed on an acid free sheet of
paper and encapsulated.

Looking at this work from a research viewpoint I would think that
the cut outs and tape placement are part of the history and
intentions of Cage, therefore perhaps the tape should remain.
However, I was questioning the option of deacidifying the pages
while leaving the tape in place and then encapsulating them. Does
anyone know how the tape would fair over a long period of time in
this state?

Deborah Howe

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:49
                Distributed: Thursday, December 14, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-49-014
                                  ***