In October of 2002 at the Met, the wooden pedestal supporting the statue Adam gave way, causing the over 500 year old sculpture to fall and break into 28 large pieces and hundreds of small fragments. It has taken 12 long years but Adam is finally back on display at the Met. There are video clips at the Met's website that detail the incident as well as the conservation efforts and an interesting time-lapse video of the final process of putting Adam back together again.
Carolyn Riccardelli, the Met conservator, mentions a few times throughout the "After the Fall" video about using reversible methods and materials in the process, such as the acrylic glue used to join the pieces together. It was amazing for me to see the enormous pains that the conservators went to in order to make the statue look as much as possible as it did before the accident. This is especially true since much of the time, in order to get something like this back on display quickly, many museums use very destructive methods such as drilling holes to get it back together. But, conservators at the Met did it right. It may have taken much longer than anyone thought, but the final results are outstanding. Even on close inspection, the cracks are almost invisible. A recent New York Times article goes into more detail about the restoration efforts and includes a brief slide show which I recommend you take a few moments to peruse.
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