Polychrome Restoration · San Francisco
Madonna della Guardia Restoration
An arsonist broke into the church where this statue was kept and set it on fire. San Francisco sculptor Phil Diers recreated the missing pieces, and Adrian Card worked from old photographs to restore the polychrome painting to match the statue's original appearance.
After restoration
Before restoration
About the Project
The Madonna della Guardia is a beloved devotional statue that suffered severe fire damage when an arsonist broke into the church. The statue was in storage at the time, wrapped in blankets which the arsonist doused in gasoline. The fire fighters started beating out the flames, unaware of what was under the blanket, and inadvertently did more damage to it. The heat and smoke destroyed much of the original polychrome surface and damaged several sculptural elements beyond repair.
Sculptor Phil Diers of San Francisco undertook the painstaking work of recreating the missing and destroyed sculptural pieces. Once the form was restored, Adrian Card worked from historical photographs of the statue to reconstruct the original color scheme and painted finish — matching flesh tones, drapery colors, gilded crown details, and the subtle modeling of light and shadow that gave the original its devotional presence.
The completed restoration returned the statue to its congregation, faithful to the appearance it had before the fire. Bay Area woodworker Matthias Murer built the wheeled plinth making it easier to move the statue around.