Joseph Beuys

I am a painting conservator working in the middlewest of Germany. At
the moment I am working as a freelancer for the museum "Kurhaus" in
Kleve, the birthplace of Beuys. I need some information about the
material behaviour concerning a multiple called
"Phosphor-Kreuzschlitten" made by Joseph Beuys 1972, (45 x 45 x 0.6
cm).

The object is composed of a thin phosphorus layer between two
transparent PVC-layers (each 3mm thickness).

When the loan arrived into the museum (climate controlled) it was
installed in upright position in it's exposition box. After a short
time it began to drip. We can see a kind of sweating out small
droplets at the surface of the PVC-layers, gathering at the bottom
of the exposition box.

During the former hanging by the private owner the object didn't
behave like that before, but it was fixed directly above a heating.
Did the climate fluctuation from a "warm and comfortable home place"
into a controlled museum environment caused the damage?

What caused the sweating of the droplets? We can't do any research
of the composition of the droplets (no money). Could it be a mixture
of phosphorus and softener from the PVC-layer?

How can we stop the sweating? How should we handle the object in the
future?

maren


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:17
                 Distributed: Thursday, October 7, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-18-17-030
                                  ***