My husband and I are renovating his family's home and removed a drop ceiling covering one third of a 15' by 35' living room. Under the drop ceiling we discovered the original paint and gilding plus a hand painted fresco from 1860!! Very Michaelangelo. I would like to clean the 100 years of grime but dont what to use any water as other areas of decorative plaster in the house have suffered disintegration due to leaking roof water damage. Any products? The gold is still quite shiny. Next problem would be that the rest of the fresco and decorative plaster on the remaining two thirds of the ceiling have been painted over with white paint!!! Can I remove the paint (some of it is flaking off) and spare the original paint underneath? This paint was most likely applied in 1950...HELP!
You might want to try this place www.talkfaux.com There are a lot of renouned master artisans on here and restoration experts that may be able to help you.
Yeah, I am with you on the amazing find, I am pretty knocked over by the original paint, but how to recreate or retrieve the rest of it is going to be a major challenge. I got in touch with a historic plaster restorer who I took a class from in January, and he shot me the name of a architectural conservator that I need to send an email today. Thanks for the link, I'll be checking it out shortly. This is the never ending project, as I am also doing the historical research and the repairs. Cross fingers for us.
