The magnificent lions of Venice are slowly dissolving away on these two extremely rare captured howitzers at the Washington Navy Yard. All of the other exposed bronze pieces are suffering similarly in varying degrees, in my opinion those exposed to the sun are degrading more rapidly than those in the shade.
We made a lot of calls and wrote letters and finally got the responsibility for the cannons fixed with Mr. Mark Wertheimer, but unfortunately he's just left the Naval Historical Center for another job. His replacement hasn't been selected yet. I don't have the museum credentials and don't want to work full time anymore or I'd go after it.
If there's anything any of you can do about this, be my guest, I haven't gotten much done yet but it is a problem that's got to be fixed, and the government tends to stonewall on the issue. I was particularly perturbed when they answered my letter, in which I'd volunteered to help raise money, to the effect that no financial help could be accepted, which was a flatout
lie, the Navy has a private "Naval Historical Foundation" that gladly accepts donations for all sorts of things like this.
The Black and White photo was taken by the Brady Co. in 1866, and shows one of the two howitzers with a nice smooth finish before the corrosion really got started. I think the corrosion is a progressive thing, in other words, the rate of damage accelerates as time goes on.
