The Museum of Ethnology in Vienna possesses many painted objects with very poorly adhering pigment, among them fine valuable carvings from the Oceanic collections and from Africa. The preservation of the colors was up to now an unsolved problem. They had often suffered heavily from effacing, peeling off and dust. A stabilization of the colors was achieved through treatment with a solution of gelatine tragacanth-cellulose (natural products) without changing the external appearance and the total aesthetic impression of the carvings.