Dry biocleaning of artwork: an innovative methodology for Cultural Heritage recovery?

Authors:

Giancarlo Ranalli1, Pilar Bosch-Roig2, Simone Crudele1, Laura Rampazzi3,4, Cristina Corti3 and Elisabetta Zanardini5

doi: 10.15698/mic2021.05.748
Volume 8, pp. 91 to 105, published 15/04/2021.

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Affiliations:

1 Department of Bioscience and Territory, University of Molise, Pesche, Italy.

2 Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Instituto de Restauration de Patrimonio, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain.

3 Department of Human Sciences, Innovation and Territory, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Como, Italy.

4 The Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, Milan, Italy.

5 Department of Science and High Technology, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Como, Italy.

Keywords: 

dry biocleaning, stonework, yeast, cultural heritage, on-site biotreatment.

Corresponding Author(s):

Giancarlo Ranalli, Department of Bioscience and Territory, University of Molise, c.da Fonte Lappone, 86090 Pesche, Italy; Phone: +39-0874404155; Fax: +39-0874404123; ranalli@unimol.it

Conflict of interest statement:

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Please cite this article as:

Giancarlo Ranalli, Pilar Bosch-Roig, Simone Crudele, Laura Ram-pazzi, Cristina Corti and Elisabetta Zanardini (2021). Dry biocleaning of artwork: an innovative methodology for cultural heritage recovery? Microbial Cell 8(5): 91-105. doi: 10.15698/mic2021.05.748

© 2021 Ranalli et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.

Abstract:

An innovative methodology is proposed, based on applied biotechnology to the recovery of altered stonework: the “dry biocleaning“, which envisages the use of dehydrated microbial cells without the use of free water or gel-based matrices. This methodology can be particularly useful for the recovery of highly-ornamented stoneworks, which cannot be treated using the conventional cleaning techniques. The experimental plan included initial laboratory tests on Carrara marble samples, inoculated with dehydrated Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells, followed by on-site tests performed on “Quattro Fontane” (The Four Fountains), a travertine monumental complex in Rome (Italy), on altered highly ornamented areas of about 1,000 cm2. The mechanism is based on the spontaneous re-hydration process due to the environmental humidity and on the metabolic fermentative activity of the yeast cells. Evaluation by physical-chemical analyses, after 18 hours of the biocleaning, confirmed a better removal of salts and pollutants, compared to both nebulization treatment and control tests (without cells). The new proposed on-site dry biocleaning technique, adopting viable yeast cells, represents a promising method that can be further investigated and optimized for recovering specific altered Cultural Heritage stoneworks.