La Pietà – Our Lady’s Home of Compassion

Object  La Pietà – Italian reproduction

Period   Early 20th Century

Medium   Carrara Marble

Suzanne Aubert, founder of Our sisters of Compassion in Wellington’s Island Bay, had a reproduction of Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, La Pietà, brought over from Italy in the early 20th Century.

While comprised of high quality material, decades of exposure to Wellington’s environment and cleaning with damaging, caustic cleaning agents hastened degradation of the statue. By 2017, the marble surface had become dirty and badly affected by algae. The subject’s fingers had also become damaged and one had broken off and been lost in the outdoors environment.

As part of the development of the Home of Our Sisters of Compassion, Studio Carolina Izzo was tasked with the conservation treatment and repairs of the statue for its relocation to the new resting place of Mother Aubert.

The final result is a story of Italian craftsmanship brought to New Zealand and restored to past glory once again by Italian craftspeople.