24TS.3
Wooden ceiling in the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery, Angkor Wat:
Recommends that a new trial panel be done for the ceiling, based on the original principle of abutting wooden crossbeams of uneven widths;
Recommends that finalization of this trial panel and the decorative pattern eventually proposed be based on the ancient fragment from Angkor Wat, now at the Guimet Museum in Paris (inventory No. MG 23153 – cat 19h).
To finalize the finishing work to be done on this future ceiling in its entirety, recommends that trials of sanding and patina be carried out, to be applied for instance on the previous trial panel, to artificially “age” its surfaces and thus provide a basis to determine the most appropriate finishing treatments;
Recommends that these trials be exhibited in situ, in the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery, for the next Technical Session of ICC-Angkor in December 2015.
For the future implementation of this ceiling throughout the gallery, it is also recommended:
a. To scrupulously avoid putting this in as simply a flat ceiling but rather to follow the general deformations of the inside cornices of the gallery, after verifying how sound it is at this time;
b. To this end, when doing the final work, to consider an initial temporary installation of the new ceiling in view of adjusting its deformations, prior to taking it down, do the sculpture work on the ground and then put it up permanently .