Florence, invented gel for artwork restoration

From the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florence comes a revolutionary invention: gel for the restoration of artworks! This gel, as reported in an article in the scientific journal PNAS (“Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America”) titled "Restoration of paper artworks with microemulsions confined in hidrogels for safe and efficient removal of adhesive tapes, " consists of solvent drops in an aqueous solution in the form of elastic sheets: according to its inventors, when deposited for a few seconds on drawings and artworks, it can perfectly remove adhesive tapes and dirt without compromising and damaging the support on which the works are made.

The creator of this gel is the team of researchers led by Piero Baglioni, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Florence, who used it to remove adhesive tape from a drawing depicting one of the figures in theRise of the Blessed in the Sistine Chapel, but it has also been used on paintings by Picasso, Pollock and Kandinsky preserved at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. As Baglioni explains, "Using the gel we discovered the inscription ’by the hand of Michelangelo’ on the drawing, owned by a private collector in Paris, probably made at the same time as the Sistine Chapel was made and of still uncertain attribution. With the same innovative gel we were also able to restore a drawing by Lucio Fontana to its original appearance."
The gels were made as part of the European Nanorestart project and are suitable for the treatment of modern works of art, which are particularly difficult to clean and preserve. “We have used them successfully,” the researcher says, "and they have been featured in the international press, such as National Geographic, on works of great value, such as paintings by Picasso, Pollock and Kandinsky, which are kept in the Guggenheim collection in Venice, and will soon be available to restorers.“ On YouTube, Professor Baglioni explains the new ”invention": https://youtu.be/xDKQKKMDywM

Florence, invented gel for artwork restoration

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