A mother-daughter duo in Spain is making waves in the world of art restoration. One is a mural restoration expert, while the other is a microbiologist. Together, they are participating in a large-scale art restoration project. But how does the microbiologist daughter help her mother in completing her work?
In 2008, microbiologist Pilar Bosch stumbled upon a paper while searching for a doctoral research topic. The paper mentioned that bacteria could be used in art restoration, which happened to be her mother’s area of expertise.
At the same time, her mother, Pilar Roig, was working diligently on restoring an 18th-century painting by Antonio Palomino in an ancient church in Valencia, the third largest city in Spain.
She encountered a problem. During the restoration of the Santos Juanes church in the 1960s, glue was used to remove murals from the walls. Removing this glue during the restoration process was proving to be challenging.
Bosch said, “My mother faced a very tricky problem, and I came across a paper about using bacteria to clean murals in Italy.”
She completed her doctoral degree with this project. Over a decade later, the mother-daughter duo embarked on a €4 million project funded by a local foundation to use these techniques to restore artworks in Valencia.
Bosch trained bacteria by feeding them samples of animal collagen glue to naturally produce enzymes that degrade the glue. The mother-daughter duo mixed the bacteria with a natural algal-based adhesive and applied it to the 1960s mural covered in residue glue taken off the walls.
After three hours, the glue was removed by the bacteria, restoring the artwork to its original state without any damage.
Roig said, “In the past, our work methods were very poor, using warm water and sponges, taking hours and damaging the artwork.”
At 75 years old, Roig mentioned that her father, grandfather, and other relatives also worked in art preservation. Her microbiologist daughter is now joining the family tradition, saying, “It’s truly a family legacy.”
Bosch has expanded the use of bacteria to restoration projects in Pisa and Montecassino in Italy, as well as in Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. She is currently cultivating another type of bacteria to remove spray-painted graffiti.
(Adapted from a report by Reuters)