Patina Protector

Fortnight ago a gang of WPA workmen were placidly sandpapering the features of a marble George Washington in Philadelphia's dark old City Hall. Suddenly a hoarse, poodle-haired Italian swept among them, seized their abrasives, roared: "Halt! Halt!" The impulsive newcomer was Sculptor Giuseppe Donato, the Philadelphia Municipal Art Jury's most mercurial member, who well knows that sandpaper is not good for the texture of marble. Sculptor Donato forthwith ran to the office of Mayor Samuel Davis Wilson, puffed out his complaint. No art expert, Mayor Wilson gave Sculptor Donato authority to complete the cleaning of the two-ton Washington statue his own way.

Last week Sculptor Donato was again compelled to sally forth in defense of Philadelphia art works when he heard that another WTA crew, furbishing up for the forthcoming Democratic National Convention, was busy scraping down the bronze statues in City Hall Plaza to make them "look like new." Such treatment would remove the bronzes' cherished patina, which comes only from long exposure to atmosphere, rain, dust and pigeon droppings. Tearing off his blue smock, Sculptor Donato dashed from his studio shouting: "This time I am going to give them hell!"

Sculptor Donato arrived at City Hall Plaza in time to save Civil War Generals McClellan and Reynolds, but the bronze statues of Locomotive Manufacturer Matthias William Baldwin and John Christian Bullitt, grandfather of Ambassador William Christian ("Bill") Bul litt, had been thoroughly scraped, oiled and polished. Sculptor Donato again sprinted for the Mayor's office, there met with fur ther bad news. A third WPA crew, he was told, had got at a bronze Washington in front of Independence Hall, holystoned away every trace of its treasured greenish mold. The WPA ducked further trouble with aroused Sculptor Donato by announcing that it had no more time to devote to scrubbing statues.

Born 55 years ago in the Italian province of Catanzaro, white-maned Giuseppe Donato has long enlivened Philadelphia with artistic disputation. In 1915 he sued Chocolate Tycoon Milton Snavely Hershey for refusing to accept a marble group called Dance of Eternal Spring which he had ordered for a fountain on his front lawn. A jury awarded Sculptor Donato $25,000. Mr. Hershey persuaded the City of Harrisburg to take the Donato fountain. Cried he: "I don't want this damned thing anywhere in Hershey!"

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