New Life for the Key Marco Cat

The cat that spawned a museum has gotten a facelift. The famous Key Marco Cat, the centuries-old six-inch tall wooden statue of a cat that was discovered in the muck in old Marco in 1896, is currently on loan at the Marco Island Historical Museum where it is environmentally protected. The museum is even required to have a security guard on duty whenever they’re open to ensure the cat’s protection. The 77” bronze version of Marco’s top cat, cast in 2010, doesn’t enjoy such pampering.

“A couple of years after Hurricane Irma, we noticed that the paint was really deteriorating on the sculpture,” said Heather Otis, the museum’s curator of collections. “So, we hired a local team and had them repaint the sculpture and make the paint look more like the actual artifact. But with the intense heat, sun, and humidity, the paint just wasn't holding up. Now we’re in 2024, and we’ve endured another major hurricane, Ian. Since the statue is in the permanent collection, we have a responsibility to care for this object in perpetuity.”

Otis said many don’t realize the statue is bronze.

“We brought in a conservation team from Miami,” Otis said, "and since it's a bronze sculpture, which a lot of people don't know because it was hidden under the paint, they recommended adding a patina to the bronze.”

The added patina gives the statue an aged bronze finish. RLA Conservation was commissioned to conduct the statue’s conservation treatment. The first thing the conservators did was study the original Key Marco Cat.

“They went in and looked at the actual Key Marco Cat,” Otis said. “They created a custom layered patina to recreate that warm reddish brown color that the wood of the original artifact looks like. It took them ten full days of very careful and delicate work, spot by spot, to create this color in the layers. They ended up doing four layers to get that depth in the brown and then added a hot wax that protects the patina underneath the bronze and the patina. And then the last step was adding the cold wax, which we do.”

The cold waxing, which is the museum staff’s responsibility, is an ongoing process.  It’s kind of like caring for an automobile in Southwest Florida.

"It's exactly what you do for a car down here,” she said. “When you own a car down here, you have to wax it more often. You would usually do a treatment about once a year, but we're looking at three, possibly four times a year, and we always do maintenance after any major storm. Because not only is the heat, the sun, and the humidity not great for bronze, but then you get the salt from the saltwater coming in, and that's even worse. As a collection staff, we learn as we go. Learning to take care of a bronze sculpture isn't something you learn in school. I actually happened upon a lecture at one of our Southeast Museum conferences that was specifically on the care of outdoor sculpture. And that's what gave me the initiative to make that first change, add a maintenance plan and then contact our first round of conservators to get this taken care of. About three times a year, the collection staff actually comes out, and we wash and wax and buff the sculpture to keep it in good condition. They did an incredibly amazing job, and we're just really happy with how it turned out. We’re really grateful to everyone who contributed to the Summer of Giving campaign to make this happen because  fine art conservation at the level that we need it to be is not inexpensive, but it's something that we needed to do to get that quality of restoration for a collections item.”

The statue, created by sculptor Carl Wagner, was a gift of Gail and Emil Fischer at a cost of $12,500. Otis said the restoration and the staff’s maintenance efforts should keep the statue looking sharp for years to come.

"You can really see the fine details of Carl Wagner's work,” Otis said, "the wood grains that he created on this bronze. We're just really thrilled with how it came out. And we're looking forward to maintaining its beautiful, lustrous condition for many, many years to come. It should last for several years, but RLA is still in the process of writing a final report after the work they did. Included in that will be a long-term maintenance plan for the sculpture."