Desktop excavations
Interview with Ron Leenheer

Ron Leenheer, member of the conservation staff, is entrusted with the Museum's metal objects. In this interview he talks about his work and methods as well as his pleasant and unpleasant discoveries.

While cleaning the base of a statuette of Isis with Harpocrates (inv. no. 8835) he discovered the name of the individual who had offered the figure;
similarly, cleaning revealed an incised pectoral on an Egyptian bronze cat (inv. no. 8831), and, surprisingly, the supposed image of a running Gorgo incised on a wine sieve (inv. no. 1477) was in fact an Etruscan dancer.

A holder for a whetstone (inv. no. 9411) unfortunately turned out to be a pastiche, while an Iranian earring (inv. no. 11.565), a fibula (inv. no. 8004) and the eyes of a bronze head of Medusa (inv. no. 1526) proved to be made of silver rather than of bronze as had previously been thought.

In the case of an iron key with a bronze handle (inv. no. 15.006) the oxidized iron had swelled, threatening to crack the bronze.