The biotechnology industry promises to feed, fuel and heal the world, but add a new boast to the list: protecting historic treasures that face accelerating deterioration due to climate change. The growing relationship between scientists and curators was the focus of a UN-affiliated international conference in Caracas designed to promote innovative ways to stem the decay of some of humanity's greatest art and cultural treasures.

 

“With the world financial crisis and the advent of climate change effects, there is a state of emergency at the museums of several tropical countries: entire collections are compromised,” says Alvaro Gonzalez, a researcher at the Caracas-based Institute of Advanced Studies and director of Venezuela's Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, which hosted the four-day event that ended Feb. 12.

 

Many of the world's cultural treasures are creations made of organic materials such as paper, canvas, wood and leather which, in prolonged warmth and dampness, attract mold, microorganisms and insects, causing decay and disintegration. The conference explored new biotechnology techniques that include the use of microorganisms to remove fungus and other problems on artwork, photos, documents, masonry and more.

 

“The normal concern about single artifacts is no longer paramount,” says Jose-Luis Ramirez, director of the United Nations University's Programme for Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean, a sponsor of the event. “Storing and protecting entire collections safely has become a priority and scientists have a key role: developing techniques and procedures that are fundamental to heritage conservation."

 

Presentations covered a range of topics. In one, a professor from the the Universitá degli Studi del Molise in Pesche, Italy described how microorganisms were used instead of chemicals to remove black crusts, nitrates, sulfates and other alterations from masonry, as well as unwanted animal glue from important painted frescos in Pisa and elsewhere in Italy. That masonry restoration work has including the base of Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini and the Cathedrals of Milan and Matera.

 

In another presentation, Spanish researchers from the Instituto de Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, advocated the use of microorganisms as biosensors to warn curators of potential risks to art objects from such threats as pollution and dust levels. The researchers say fungi and bacteria can be harnessed to warn of significant environmental fluctuations and the impact of too many visitors.

 

Curators in many developing countries all face similar issues of how to assess the vulnerability of objects, how to improve storage conditions, how to control exhibition and archive environments and how to set preservation and restoration priorities, according to United Nations University's Ramirez.

 

“The items in museum collections have timeless cultural, scientific and aesthetic values that we hold in trust for future generations. They also have great commercial value derived from exhibitions, souvenirs, tours and publications,” says United Nation’s Under Secretary-General Konrad Osterwalder. “Despite the current economic downturn, we all have a great responsibility to ensure historic objects are managed and used in a sound and sustainable way and to safeguard them from the potential effects of a warming planet.”