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The conservation of artworks requires a profound knowledge about pictorial materials, their chemical and physical properties and their interaction and/or degradation processes. For this reason, pictorial materials databases are widely used to study and investigate cultural heritage. At Centre for Conservation and Restoration La Venaria Reale (CCR) we prepared a set of about 1200 mock-ups with 173 different pigments and/or dyes, used across all the historical times or as products for conservation, 4 binders, 2 varnishes and 4 different materials for underdrawings. In collaboration with the Laboratorio Analisi Scientifiche (LAS) of Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta, the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM) and the Department of Architecture and Design (LAMSA) of the Polytechnic of Turin, we created a scientific database that is now available online (http://www.centrorestaurovenaria.it/en/areas/diagnostic/pictorialmaterials-database) designed as a tool for heritage science and conservation. Here we present a focus on materials for pictorial retouching where the hyperspectral imaging (HSI) application, conducted with a prototype of new technology, allowed to provide a list of pigments that could be more suitable for conservation treatments and pictorial retouching. Then we present the case study of the industrial painting Notte Barbara (1962) by Pinot Gallizio where the use of the database including modern and contemporary art materials showed to be very useful and where the fibre optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) technique was decisive for pigment identification purpose. Later in this research, the mock-ups' will be exploited to study degradation processes, e. g. the lightfastness, or the possible formation of interaction products, e.g. metal carboxylates.1 Mowilith DM5: PVAc and acrylic ester in aqueous solution, plasticizer free, Sinopia SAS datasheet [21]. 2 Linseed oil was also used as binder for gamboge, madder and indigo, as reported in literature.

Diagnostic physical methods are increasingly applied to Cultural Heritage both for scientific investigations and conservation purposes. In particular, the X-ray imaging techniques of computed tomography (CT) and digital radiography (DR) are non-destructive investigation methods to study an object, being able to give information on its inner structure. In this paper, we present the results of the X-ray imaging study on an ancient Egyptian statuette (Late Period 722–30 BCE) belonging to the collection of Museo Egizio in Torino and representing an Egyptian goddess called Taweret, carved on wood and gilded with some colored details. Since few specific studies have been focused on materials and techniques used in Ancient Egypt for gilding, a detailed investigation was started in order to verify the technical features of the decoration in this sculpture. Specifically, DR and CT analyses have been performed at the Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale” (CCR), with a new high resolution flat-panel detector, that allowed us to perform tomographic analysis reaching a final resolution better than the one achievable with the previous apparatus operating in the CCR.

The neu_ART project aims at developing state of the art transmission imaging and computed tomography techniques, applied to art objects, by using neutrons as well as more conventional X-rays. In this paper a facility for digital X-ray radiography of large area paintings on canvas or wooden panels and for the X-ray tomography of large size wooden artifacts, recently installed in a protected area, is presented. The results of a K-edge radiography facility that will soon be installed in the same area are also shown.

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