• Commissioned by the Empress
Elizabeth of Austria
• Designed and executed in Berlin by Ernst Herter
• Erected in New York in 1899.
The fountain consists of statuary depicting Heine’s
epic poem Die Lorelei. Lorelei is a mythological temptress
of the Rhine River who lured many boats off course and
onto the rocks. Her figure sits atop a pedestal surrounded
by mermaids, dolphins and a variety of sea creatures
all carved from Tyrolean and Dover marbles.
Vandalism has been an ongoing problem and numerous
restoration attempts have preceded this one. The team
of Old World Stone and Summit Restoration joined forces
with The Grenadier Corporation of New York. The Grenadier
Corporation dismantled the statue and transported it
to Burlington. Summit removed layers of paint and graffiti
using a variety of cleaning techniques which included
chemical poultices, acids, and micro-abrasive cleaning.
Some of the paint residue was so deeply set in the fragile
stone that it was necessary to paint it over with an
opaque mineral coating.
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