We are happy to announce that the new research project ‘Crystallization Damage at the Interfaces of Artworks’ started this September.

In this multi-year project, project leader Noushine Shahidzadeh and her research team Isabelle Garachon, Leo Pel, Hannelore Derluyn, Stefano de Miranda and Rozeline Wijnhorst, will develop an integrated approach for modelling and analysis of the decay of artworks due to salt crystallization in layered materials.

This cooperation between exact scientists and conservation specialists promotes an interdisciplinary research on the topic of crystallization as one of the major causes of degradation of porous objects – and art in particular. The project is financed by the Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPICH), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Netherlands Institute for Conservation Art and Science (NICAS).

Click here to read more about the project.

Delamination and crack on wall paintings due to salt crystallization (Forum Romano – Rome, Italy). Image: Noushine Shahidzadeh.