A Tour of the Plaster Collection at the State Art Institute of Florence
Led by Prof. Giovanni Hubbard, a teacher of plaster casting at the Art Institute, we enter the wing dedicated to plaster casts and originals: the gipsoteca.

...Copies of the many pieces are lent or sold to museums and academies around the world, and some are for sale. Often, new plasters are made to replace the damaged ones, or in the case of Michelangelo’s David, the Institute’s cast was used by the restorers as a model to reassemble the broken left toe of the vandalized marble. It was clear by the end of our visit that the skill of casting in these unassuming materials—gypsum or plaster of Paris—is alive and well.