Four Caryatids get a “facelift”

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Decades of dirt, grime and pollution have been painstakingly stripped away from the Caryatids, the iconic marble maidens that stood at the Erechtheion. To this end, conservators of the Acropolis Museum used an innovative laser technique to clean four of the six statues that stand seven and a half feet tall. Since 1979 these figures were moved to the old Acropolis Museum to be protected from further damage and replicas were installed in their place. The cleaning project began in 2011 after scientists at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas of Crete developed a hi-tech system to clean the sculptures. The marble maidens look nicer than ever after their beauty treatment.