A new treatment for the conservation of silver artifacts has been developed based on chemical reduction of the silver corrosion products to metallic silver. This reduction is achieved through the use of alkaline dithionite solutions in the absence of atmospheric oxygen. The method has been applied to silver artifacts recovered from shipwrecks but it should also be suitable for land site materials. The results obtained are superior to those using previous methods. Because the method is rapid, uses cheap readily available chemicals, and is well suited to bulk treatments, it also gives considerable cost and time benefits.