COST ACTION G8
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS AND TESTING OF MUSEUM OBJECTS
Feedback from the questionnaires : Part I
Conservation professionals
Participants
Accessibility to ND
analytical and
testing techniques
ND techniques relevant to WG3
Limitations
- Internally: our
Vasilike
Argyropoulos institution owes a
Portable XRF, colour chromameter and
“Surface molds” analysed by SEM: analysis
of outdoor bronze monuments.
- Accessibility to techniques and
time to be able to work with a
scientist who specialises in the
application of the technique
- Usually the scientist has many
projects and it can be difficult to
be able to work with him or her
- Not enough trained persons to
use the equipment
- Lack of funding to pay for
analytical work.
Approach to applying non-destructive
techniques on a routine basis that is
economical and the “client” will be
willing to pay for the services rendered.
Christian
Degrigny
- SEM-EDS: observation of the surface of
metal artefacts (without sampling) to study
their damage
- UV fluorescence photography: alteration of
a varnish
- X-radiography: alteration of a metal
artefact, paintings…
- computerized video spectral comparator:
use of imaging techniques to reveal specific
alteration features
Analytical techniques are very
limited in Malta . To use them it
is necessary to travel abroad:
high cost…
- More involvement of conservators in
the use of non-destructive techniques: to
improve their awareness and to give
them tools to monitor properly the
artefacts
- More involvement of students during
their training. Future users of these
techniques
- Accessibility of the techniques on site
- More involvement of researchers in
conservation issues to identify
degradation, corrosion and weathering
processes and give tools to conservators
and conservation scientists to define
portable XRF, SEMEDX, and colour
chromameter
-Collaborations: access to
other types of non –
destructive techniques
through collaboration
with research institutes
such as FORTH and
Demokritos
- Within the Malta Centre
for Restoration
- Collaboration with other
institutions: Forensic
Science laboratory
Wertheim-Bronnbach / 13-14 2004
1
Requests and needs to be
tackled within WG3
Questionnaire – Part I
COST ACTION G8
Martina
Griesser
Miladi
Makuc
Semion
Henning
Matthiesen
Manfred
Schreiner
Karen
Stemann
Peterson
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS AND TESTING OF MUSEUM OBJECTS
proper conservation strategies.
Conservation and preservation of
corroded metal objects.
Only in co-operation with
university institutes, the
IAEA (International
Atomic Energy Agency)
Laboratories and by
COST actions
- Very limited
- Not systematically
organised
- Collaboration between
the Centre for restoration
and National Gallery is in
preparation
Electrochemical measurements (cathodic
polarization curves): corrosion of silver and
copper inclusions in gold coins.
- Too expensive to buy i.e. a
portable XRF system for the
museum
- Lack of personnel.
UV: observation, photography (detecting
previous treatments)
IR: digital imaging – detecting underdrawings
X-radiography: observation of internal
structure of sculptures, overpaintings
PIXE: materials identification (pigments) on
paintings and sculptures – few tests.
To give useful guidelines (“recipes”) to
the scientists who are not in daily contact
with artefacts and for who such analyses
are not their daily task.
- Good access to e.g. XRadiography, FTIR,
micro-probe FTIR, SEM
- No access to e.g. microprobe XRD, XANES (Xray Absorption Near Edge
Structure) and others
Yes, at the Academy of
Fine Arts as well as at the
Vienna University of
Technology
- X-Radiography for evaluating state of
preservation for iron artefacts
- EIS, ER (Electrochemical Resistance) and
corrosion potential for measuring ongoing
corrosion in soil
- FTIR (Attenuated Total Reflection) for
identifying corrosion products.
- XRF, XRD and SEM/EDX for glass and
metal analysis and corrosion products,
identification of pigments
- AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) and FTIR
for in-situ studies of the weathering process
on glass as well as on metal surfaces.
- Exposure of coupons simulating the
original materials to pollutants.
- Oddy-tests in collaboration with our lab.
- SEM/EDS analyses directly on surfaces of
small objects to determined composition in
connection with technology studies. (reliable
results from above mentioned SEM/EDS often
- Collaboration between the
institutions is very limited
because of poor economical
situation
- There is no understanding from
the owners’ side that analyses
are part of the conservation
process
- Scientists are not trained for the
methods needed in conservation.
No access to other methods.
In some cases too expensive.
Degradation of materials used for
modern and contemporary art objects.
-
-
Yes as far as projects or
department resources will
sponsor analyses
Wertheim-Bronnbach / 13-14 2004
2
- What do the corrosion products say
about the corrosion mechanisms?
- Does reburied archaeological wood
accumulate Fe and S from the reburial
environment?
Questionnaire – Part I
COST ACTION G8
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS AND TESTING OF MUSEUM OBJECTS
require that small areas of analyses must be
scraped clean).
Development of PIXE method for ND
analysis of paper documents.
Jedert
Vodopivec
Accessibility to analytical
testing techniques depend
in great part upon
personal contacts with
researchers and financial
sources
Clara von
Waldthausen
- Housed in ICN
(Netherlands Institute for
Cultural Heritage)
premises.
- Access to various
destructive and ND
analytical instruments
- AD strips: use of ND analytical techniques
in preventive conservation.
- The preservation calculator
- The cellulose acetate and the colour wheel:
ageing of materials.
Helena
Wouters
- The IRPA laboratory is
well-equipped. Unlimited
access to all in-house
available techniques
- collaboration with other
institutions for more
sophisticated techniques:
SIMS, µ-XRD, and
especially where a
particle accelerator is
needed, like PIXE
- Portable EDXRF : elemental analysis
corrosion products in fields of metals,
paintings, manuscripts
- Raman Spectroscopy - Microscopy: in situ
determination of corrosion products on
paintings, metals
- X-Radiography : thickness of the corrosion
layer in metals
- SEM-EDX-WDX : visualisation and
determination of degradation and corrosion on
all kind of materials
- Climate-control chambers for degradation
experiments: Xenon Arc Weather-Ometer
(include dry-wet cycle, rain, irradiation and
temperature); acid-fog and salt-fog unit; a
freeze-thaw unit; a Kesternich chamber (drydeposition experiments).
Wertheim-Bronnbach / 13-14 2004
3
The use of ND techniques
depends on technical, human and
economical factors. Today all
three needs to be fulfilled. Not
easy to realise in practice, in
parallel to the daily conservation
work
- Cost of ND analytical
techniques and dependence on
research laboratories
- The AD strips, the preservation
calculater and the wheels are
cheap and easy to use and
provide great advantages in
making decisions surrounding the
preventive conservation of
certain photograph collections.
Economical restrictions. The
instrumentation in our Lab is
chosen in a way that the
acquisition- and working cost
falls within a relative acceptable
range compared to the overall
application possibility for all the
different conservation fields.
Relatively not expensive and technically
not to complicated methods
-
- To bring together people working on
the same field
- Development of more collaboration and
exchange of information.
Questionnaire – Part I