The safety of biocleaning technologies for cultural heritage

Onsite advanced biocleaning system for historical wall paintings using new agar-gauze bacteria gel

“…When artwork undergoes a restoration process, a selective cleaning phase is generally required at the end of the biocleaning process to carefully remove the bacterial cells used as biocleaning agents and to prevent undesired metabolic processes. Therefore, an adequate strategy for the future protection of artwork needs to include an accurate cleaning phase because if the micro‐organisms remain viable and active, they may cause material loss or damage, either directly or as a consequence of their metabolic by‐products (Bosch‐Roig and Ranalli ).…”

Application of Microbial Cleaning Technology for Removal of Surface Contamination

“…Other bioremediated examples include the Cathedrals of Milan, Florence, and Matera in Italy; the base of Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini in Milan; the loggias (exterior galleries) of the Casina Farnese on the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy; sculptures in the Buonconsiglio Castle courtyard in Trento and the Monumental Cemetery in Milan; a nineteenth-century building in Riga, Latvia; the Epidauro Theatre in Greece; marble bas relief in Palero, Italy; and biocleaned frescoes in the Santos Juanes Church in Valencia, Spain [86,88,90,92,93,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112].…”

“…Given the delicate and fragile nature of the surfaces, the cleaning process is almost always a manual process that must be carefully performed. Although biorestoration is promising, the risks posed by the technology have not been sufficiently addressed, as well as the advantages and limitations compared with other physical, chemical, and mechanical cleaning processes [16,104].…”

Hi-tech restoration by two-steps biocleaning process ofTriumph of Deathfresco at the Camposanto Monumental Cemetery (Pisa, Italy)

“…For these reasons, a crucial step in restoration is the chemical characterization in order to distinguish the original organic materials and those deriving from past restoration works and it is pivotal to define if the materials have undergone through transformation and weathering processes. Previous studies highlighted that, when traditional methods resulted ineffective, the use of enzymes, surfactants and solubilizing agents showed a great potentiality (Makes 1988;Bellucci and Cremonesi 1994;Bonomi 1994;Wolbers 2000;Polo et al 2010;Troiano et al 2013) together with the application of a selected viable bacterial cells as 'biorestoration and biocleaning' agents, which can be an alternative and innovative technique to clean both frescoes and altered stoneworks (Antonioli et al 2005;Cappitelli et al 2005Cappitelli et al , 2007May et al 2008;Alfano et al 2011;Giovent u et al 2011;Bosch-Roig et al 2012, 2013a, 2013bBosch-Roig and Ranalli 2014;Mazzoni et al 2014). Previous studies highlighted that, when traditional methods resulted ineffective, the use of enzymes, surfactants and solubilizing agents showed a great potentiality (Makes 1988;Bellucci and Cremonesi 1994;Bonomi 1994;Wolbers 2000;Polo et al 2010;Troiano et al 2013) together with the application of a selected viable bacterial cells as 'biorestoration and biocleaning' agents, which can be an alternative and innovative technique to clean both frescoes and altered stoneworks (Antonioli et al 2005;Cappitelli et al 2005Cappitelli et al , 2007May et al 2008;Alfano et al 2011;Giovent u et al 2011;Bosch-Roig et al 2012…”