Connecting to Collections Care

Hello all,

I'm afraid we may have an wooden sculpture that has been displayed outdoors or nearly outdoors for a long time that is experiencing wood rot.  This is new territory for me.  Can you advise on how serious this is, what can and should done, and how quickly.  The sculpture is quite large and originally made out of Ponderosa pine.  One are in particular is incredibly spongy.  We were wondering about wood-boring insects but the damage area is spongy and the debris/breakages doesn't look like frass.  Images attached.

Thanks for your advice!

Jodi Lundgren
Collections Manager
Crazy Horse Memorial

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Jodi Lundgren
Collections Manager
Crazy Horse SD
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Hi Jodi,

Thank you for sharing this question. I will do some research and connect with our forum experts to find some more information for you.

Best,
Jen

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Jen Hunt Johnson
Special Collections Conservator
Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
jhuntjoh@nd.edu
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Hello Jodi, 
From the photos and your description, It looks like more of a fungi problem than just wood-boring insects. In other words, I think it may be a dry-rot situation that will attract larger wood-eating insects. 
I would consider it seriously enough to consider an intervention.  Without a physical examination, I can not propose a specific treatment. However, it will need to be treated with borates and then consolidated. 
Take a look at this article on treating architectural rotted wood for some insight: Epoxies for Wood Repairs in Historic Buildings  

Craig

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Craig Deller
Fellow
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