When dirt- and soot-layers had been removed changes that had occurred in the composition and details of the original icon came in sight. The original, the shape of which had been scratched into the priming with a fine needle seemed to have been rather different from the later-day painting.

The most interesting change is the position of Christ’s fingers on the hand he has raised for blessing. The original icon shows the so-called Latin crossing (the later-day three-fingered sign), but the painting depicts the earlier, two-fingered gesture that was common among the Old Believers.

The Emmaste Apostolic Orthodox Church in Hiiumaa is also known as the Kuriste Church of the Birth of Our Lady. [ill 1] The iconostasis was evidently made in between 1900-1920. It has two diaconal doors decorated with images of archangels. The present article is focused on one of these doors, not a part of the iconostasis any longer and thus further on called icon. Conservators Maria Lillepruun and Harle Poomann from the Estonian Open Air Museum worked out a new conservation concept – a method combining materials and mode that required stabilisation of the wooden base and building up the decayed borders layer by layer.

As expected, the biggest challenge in this conservation work was that the posters were large objects in terms of the usual parameters of the works on paper. The preparation of work surfaces (table, vacuum table) as well as precise planning of work processes (washing on a vacuum table, backing, digitisation) required non-traditional solutions. Some of them required the cooperation of several conservators.