his breast with his left hand. The statue measures 74 centimetres (29 inches) in height; the pedestal is 27 centimetres (10.6 inches) in width. The core of the sculpture was carved from a single piece of wood, most likely from a poplar tree, though earlier art historians have assumed it to be pear, plum or lime. The sculpture's surface is entirely covered with sheets of gold leaf less than 0.25 millimetres (0.01 in) thick, which are held in place by minute golden bolts. The size of the individual gold leaves varies to suit the surface texture. The faces of both mother and child are pounded out of one single leaf each. The coloured eyes of the figures are made of cloisonné enamel. While the eyes of the mother are inset into carved fittings, those of the child are merely pasted on the wooden core. The child's hand is made of cast silver and was added only in the 14th century; the original right hand is lost. There are traces of original tenth century adornments on the orb in the Virgin's right hand, on the right back leg of the stool, as well as on the child's book and halo. The agrafe showing an eagle and seemingly pinning Mary's cloak is an early thirteenth century addition; the fibula beneath has Gothic features and is dated to the fourteenth century. Preservation efforts The Madonna was first restored in 1905. By then the statue's core was riddled with woodworm tunnels and threatened to collapse. The restorers carefully wrapped the statue in a plaster cast, insufflated the cavities to remove bore dust, impregnated them with insecticides and finally filled them with a mixture of glue, chalk and water, turning the figure around repeatedly in the process so as to reach every nook and angle. The surface holes were then sealed with bolts of oak. The restoration cost a total of 3,200 Goldmarks, part of which was paid by the Prussian state. During and after World War II the statue suffered from hasty evacuation transports; many gold leaves came loose and the wood was again infested with wood boring insects. A second restoration was undertaken by the Essen goldsmith Classen, who gassed the sculpture with pesticides and filled the bore holes with “liquid wood”, a plastic then commonly used in wood restorations. The most recent restoration was undertaken on site in 2004. A workshop was