Works of art in pastel are vulnerable to the loss of pigment particles through flaking. Further development of Victoria Blyth's idea that an electrostatic attraction between pastel particles and their support halts the flaking process was carried out by engineers at Hughes Aircraft Company. They made a 35 x 26 inch Electrostatic Stabilizing Plate for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to treat a Mary Cassatt entitled <i>Reine Lefebvre and Margot. The plate consists of approximately 200 long interlaced fingers of copper circuitry sandwiched between two layers of polyimide plastic each measuring five thousandths of an inch thick. By drawing about 10,000 volts from a high-voltage generator the electrostatic field is created. The molecular dipoles of the particles are aligned and immobilized. -- AATA