Through social media, restoration experts denounced that the maintenance works being done in the famous Hemiciclo a Juárez monument in Mexico City were a failure, and meant irreparable damage to the historic site.
Faced with the accusation, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) decided to suspend the work, but did so once they were already finished.
The company responsible for the restoration works, Maegarquitectos S.A, de C.V., have a contract worth over 4 million pesos to restore the whole Alameda area.
Experts, through the Facebook webpage “Patrimony and Art, El Caballito”, denounced that the monument was covered with a coat of fresh paint, hiding the marble finishes with which it is built.
“Applying this type of painting, made with enamel, means sooner or later the surface could acquire a yellow color”, stated art restorer Verónica Chacón to the newspaper El Universal.
The expert pointed out that at certain angles contrasts in texture are visible, mainly on the columns, while the back of the monument now looks “like a white wall”.
Public Space Authority Roberto Remes, however, stated that no change was made to the patina, but merely a protection for the marble consisting in soap cleaning and covering the structure applying artificial patina to a varnish that matches the tone and structure of the marble.
FERNANDO FRANCO GUTIÉRREZ
