The strengthening alliance between scientists and curators in the battle to save some of humanity’s greatest art and cultural treasures was the focus of a four-day international conference in Caracas, co-sponsored by UNU Programme for Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNU-BIOLAC).

“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,” said the Director of UNU-BIOLAC, José-Luis Ramirez.

Many of the world’s cultural treasures are made of organic materials such as paper, canvas, wood and leather which, in prolonged warmth and dampness, attract mould, micro-organisms and insects, causing decay and disintegration.

Alvaro Gonzalez, a researcher at the Caracas-based Institute of Advanced Studies (IDEA) and Director of Venezuela’s Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, the host of the event, said that 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 where entire collections are compromised.

Real Certificate of 1716 (Archivo General de la Nación, Argentina).

New biotechnology techniques discussed at the conference include the use of micro-organisms to remove fungus and other problems on paintings, photos, documents and masonry. Prof. Giancarlo Ranalli, of the Universitá degli Studi del Molise in Pesche, Italy, described how he used micro-organisms instead of chemicals to rid masonry of troublesome black crusts, nitrates, sulphates and other alterations. His masonry restoration work includes the base of Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini and the cathedrals of Milan and Matera.

Sofía Borrego Alonso, of the Archivo Nacional de la República de Cuba, said that using costly chemical biocides to combat infestations of micro-organisms and insects in cultural documents not only harms the people who apply them but also accelerates the materials’ deterioration. She advocated the use of natural, plant-derived products successfully tested in Cuba’s National Archives.

Spanish researcher Nieves Valentin Rodrigo of the Instituto de Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, took this idea a step further, promoting the use of micro-organisms as an early warning system to alert curators of potential risks to art objects from such threats as pollution and dust. She says fungi and bacteria can be harnessed to warn of significant environmental fluctuations and the impact of too many visitors.

According to Dr. Ramirez, curators in many developing countries, regardless of the type of collection they steward, ask similar questions: How to assess the vulnerability of objects; how to improve storage conditions; how to control exhibition or archive environments, especially in a tropical country with strictly limited means; and how to set preservation and restoration priorities.

In addition to biotechnologies, experts at the conference discussed various preservation techniques, such as the ancient Japanese method of preserving fragile items within multiple boxes and the use of Styrofoam packaging to economically protect items from heat, humidity and other environmental hazards.

Conference delegates shared information about how temperature, relative humidity and dew point endanger or benefit collections; new technologies to measure and analyze museum environment data; how to manage environments with minimal or no mechanical equipment; and non-toxic, non-destructive treatments of cultural heritage items.

Cuba’s Institute of History described its innovative method of assessing the state of heritage photo and document collections while experts from the Philippines outlined their system of ranking artwork restoration priorities.

“The items in museum collections have timeless cultural, scientific and aesthetic values that we hold in trust for future generations,” said UNU Rector Prof. Konrad Osterwalder. “They also have great commercial value derived from exhibitions, souvenirs, tours and publications. 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.”