A team of craftsmen or the ravages of time

In the May 3, 2015 issue the The New York Times’ T Magazine, Jessica Dawson wrote about “Filthy Lucre”, Darren Waterston’s take on James McNeill Whistler’s “Peacock Room” which will soon be exhibited in the Freer and Sackler Galleries along with Whistler’s room.  According to Dawson, “Where Whistler produced unabashed luxury, Waterston has made melancholic decay: In his version, paintings molder, pigments puddle and shelves splinter.”  She noted that it took Waterston and a team of craftsmen eight months to produce this “decay”. How long would it have taken the ravages of time to create similar looking but real decay?