The removal of hazardous contaminants from fragile artifacts that cannot be treated by mechanical cleaning methods can be achieved by immersing the artifact into a solvent that dissolves the contaminant(s) of interest but is nonreactive with the artifact. By providing an adsorbent sink, such as activated carbon or an evaporative blotter, the disso led contaminant is then removed from the solvent. Experiments were conducted in which a solvent soluble blue dye was removed from cotton gauze by placing the gauze in direct contact with an activated carbon fabric saturated with ethoxyperfluorobutane (3M’s HFE-7200). With sufficient time, the dye was completely removed from the gauze without the use of mechanical agitation.