To back up a bit, I am not a restorer, but a fiction writer researching a story. I have just checked again in the Byzantine Wallpaintings of Crete by Kalokyris, and there is no mention of painting on wet or dry plaster, but the translators have consistently used the words wall paintings, not frescoes. The wall paintings in churches on Crete all have a white bloom. The book says "chalky film is typical in Cretan churches." The photographer wet down the wall paintings before photographing them (with permission, of course.)

There are a number of churches on Crete whose wallpaintings have been whitewashed at various times. My fictional church in a fictional village lost its roof in a fire in world war two and the priest at the time, to defend the wallpaintings from the ravages of weather, ordered them whitewashed. Now, 50 yrs later, my fictional character wishes to remove the whitewash and reveal the saints whose eyes he feels watching him. He will do research online at an internet cafe and will find suggestions ranging from lunatic to wise, and he will try them all out on a corner of the wall, until he gets it right. I need to know what right might be, so when one of you reads the novel you don't disbelieve the rest of the story because these details aren't possible.

A painter friend who lived in Greece for awhile said he thought the calcimining done each spring in villages probably had very little binder and seemed flakey as he remembered. That would make picking it off not such an onerous task, I think. He also mentioned cleaning smoke and dirt off tempera icons with white bread dipped in orange juice. But that doesn't help with the wall paintings.

I have found the Getty website and have noted abstracts that might help, but I havent figured out how one gets the actual texts of these articles. The University of Washington library has one of them, but even the University of California library system doesn't have the others. Suggestions?

One abstract mentioned using Primal AC 33 to consolidate the murals, with an inert powder as necessary. Primal AC33 is called Rhoplex in the US. What is it? Could a layman buy it? Would he need it? Or once he scraped the whitewash off these walls, would they crumble at his feet?

Another abstract mentioned removing whitewash then adhering loosened plaster with a 15-25 percent water emulsion of polyvinyl acetate. Is that Primal AC33?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed.