The tabernacle from S. Leonardo in Montebufo di Preci, is dated 1599. Depicting the transportation of Mary’s Holy House to Loreto, the sculpture is a polymateric work, exactly made of polychrome papier-mâché, thus with paper as the main constituent and the pictorial film as the work’s defining element. This is a papier machè relief made by pressing macerated paper inside a concave matrix. From a conservation point of view, the tabernacle had unevenness in the upper part of the frame, which was also detached and had further cracks in the lower part due to a xylophagous attack. The restoration was carried out in several phases, the objectives being major structural recovery and improved aesthetic restitution. The former was indispensable because of the instability of the wooden structure and the very advanced xylophagus attack, and the latter aimed to recover the color values altered by the stratified deposits.
