Preservation of Paintings in a sustainable future (PREPARE)

Like all of us, museums are faced with the need to reduce their energy consumption. Since maintaining tight indoor climate conditions is very energy-intensive, widening those climate tolerances would have a big impact on the carbon footprint and finances of museums. However, we currently lack scientific data on the environmental response of painting materials to ensure safe implementation of adapted indoor climate guidelines for paintings.

The PREPARE project addresses this important issue by studying wax-resin lined oil paintings in Dutch historic interiors with little climate-control, where the effects of climate-induced change in paintings are most extreme and most easily studied. A parallel line in the project is the design of chemically modified model systems based on the material composition of lined paintings that are extra sensitive to climate fluctuations. These models can serve as a kind of “dosimeter” that, by nature of their environmental sensitivity, allow quantitative comparison of different indoor climates. Moreover, by compiling systematic sets of models with increasing complexity, they will help establishing the root cause of climate-induced damage in paintings. Finally, the project will develop low-tech monitoring protocols for chemical early-warning sign detection and a risk classification of paint materials and climate conditions.

The PREPARE project is coordinated by dr. Joen Hermans (University of Amsterdam) and will be carried out in close collaboration with the Rijksmuseum, Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL), and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE).

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