Something else I spotted when I was in the objects conservation lab was this beautiful Egyptian relief from the 3rd millenium B.C.E., Relief of Ka-aper and His Wife Tutti. It is a relief from a tomb that depicts the inhabitant of the tomb and his wife. It has been in the Museum's collection for over 60 years.
The conservators have been treating the surface to consolidate and control the flaking. The stone contains a lot of soluable salts that have dried out and started flaking with exposure to air. They have also been able to remove some stains that were caused by previous restorations.
The next step is to decide how to cosmetically restore it. The piece will be examined by an Egyptologist from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since this is an archaeological piece, our conservators prefer to do less restoration than more. Anything they do to the relief could cause further damage. The challenge will be to decide how much they can do to increase the legibility but maintain the piece's natural integrity.