Thothirdes may be familiar to those of you who have seen her on display in the 3rd floor Egyptian Galleries. She was deinstalled and brought up to the lab this week so that we could prepare her for a trip to the hospital. Fortunately, her mummy seems to not have been disturbed, and she is a good candidate for the CT (computed tomography scanning) we are planning on doing at North Shore University Hospital.
X-radiographs were take in the 1930’s of this mummy. Unfortunately, those radiographs were made using nitrate based filmed and are no longer in a state of preservation to be of use.
When we removed her body from the coffin, the beautiful painting below was revealed. The coffin, without the body, is now on back on display in the 3rd floor galleries. You can come by and see this painting until the end of June when we plan on returning Thothirdes’s body to her coffin.
In addition to the painting on the inside, her coffin is painted on all sides, including the underside as seen here in this image.
We look forward to sharing the information about Thothirdes that might be revealed in the CT scans.
Lisa Bruno
Objects Conservator
Lisa Bruno is the head conservator of objects at the Brooklyn Museum, where she has been working since 1993. She has previously worked at the Art Institute of Chicago, and has had internships at The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and in private practice. She has a Masters Degree in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware, Winterthur Museum Art Conservation Department. She is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation.