Reframing a lino cut

[BeatnikFraming]

A customer has brought a lino cut to me that she got at auction for reframing. It's in pretty bad condition and she's overpaid for it. It's got acid stains etc but it's also been glued to the backing which is covered in atg tape.

I've told her that all I can do is put a new mount on and reframe it, she's not interested in taking it to a conservator to see if anything can be done with it.

My question is should I trim the backing away a little, or leave it as is? I told her I could trim to get rid of the tape residue but then was worried that this would be considered tampering with the print. Obviously I wouldn't touch the artwork at all. I might be overthinking this but thought I'd check first!

[JFeig]

Removing the excess mounting board from a previous picture frame job while not touching the actual art is not considered changing the actual integrity of the art by any conservator or museum.

[Not your average framer]

The fact that there is acid damage to the print is not necessarily very helpful, if you are thinking of removing the attached backing board and possibly other materials attecthed to the print. The possibility of the paper substrate of the print being weakened by the acid damage needs to be consider and the risks of further damage, resulting from both any weakening of the paper and the effects of your own actions, in attempting to remove the backing board and any other unwanted material need to be mitigated before attempting further action.

If you not a competent conservator, what makes you think that you are able to safely undertake such work? At the moments, it's not your problen. Is it not much better not to let it become your problem? It is what it is, if the customer is happy to just have it framed, I would leave it at that and not lose any sleep about something which is not my problem.

[BeatnikFraming]

I've probably not explained very well Mark, I'm not going to attempt to do anything to the print. The print is dry mounted to a backing with around 5cm border all round, and the backing board is in pretty bad condition. I was just thinking of trimming away the border to get rid of all the yellow tape that's stuck to it.

[BeatnikFraming]

Thanks jerome, that's what I thought but I was doubting myself