#restorer

emergency item (fourteen years worth of dust and neglect)

I'm training at a museum as a future museum specialist handling all kinds of tasks. Today I worked on the scientific description and attribution of an object.

I can't even put into words how tender I feel toward this alabaster bas-relief of Sappho.

It's painstaking work — putting together the most complete description possible. It's crucial not to miss anything, not a single inscription or mark, and to carefully document every crack and chip on this poor girl, so that the restorers have the solid foundation they need.

I felt such awe and love for what I do. You're preserving an ancient artifact, preserving culture, working with real art.

And thanks to my curator — a smart and cheerful woman — who argued with me over whether it was marble or alabaster. I shone a flashlight through the relief, tapped it with my fingers, and in the end, I entered "alabaster" into the database.