2 Cultural Heritage Statues Cleaned

Cultural heritage conservation is currently being carried out by Jakarta Tourism and Cultural Department. There are two objects cleaned in this work, namely Dirgantara Statue, or commonly known as Patung Pancoran, and Diponegoro Statue in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Their condition is already chronic and needs to be cleaned right away because it affects their durability

For Dirgantara Statue, the conservation work has been started on Monday (8/11) and will be carried out until upcoming September 19. Meanwhile, the Diponegoro Statue will be cleaned on upcoming September 17 until October 2.

Acting Head of Conservation Hall Technical Management Unit (UPT) for Jakarta Tourism and Cultural Department, Eni Prihantini, informed there are 22 statues in the city that are categorized as cultural heritage buildings. The cleaning of those buildings has been started since five years ago. Last year, five statues were cleaned.

National Archives Museum Less Enthused

“Before doing conservation work to those statues, first we observed them in last June. The result is that their condition is already chronic and needs to be cleaned right away because it affects their durability,” she stated, Tuesday (8/12).

For information, Dirgantara Statue is never been cleaned since it was built in 1964, while Diponegoro Statue had been cleaned in 2007 after it was built in 1965. Part of the surface of these statues is worn-out, oxidized, and corroded due to salinization caused by chloride salt since they are located in open public spaces. Thus, they became affected by volatile environmental factors and polluted by pollutant substances which are corrosive.

“The seat of Dirgantara Statue, which made of reinforced concrete cast, is also overgrown with blackish algae of Cyanophyeceae (blue green algae),” she told.