Conservation of wooden art works and laser cleaning

Abstract

Laser cleaning technique has been thoroughly compared to traditional chemical and mechanical procedures in the several case studies of wooden artworks, particularly when conventional cleaning tests showed that none of the methods known to experienced restorers met all the requirements. Laser cleaning tool, included into conservation projects, appeared to be very successful in the removal of old overpaintings, dirt clusters in deep artworks fractures and hollows as well as removal of sootiness formed by mixture of soot, wax, stearin and dust from coloured polychrome. Moreover, laser cleaning appeared to be much faster and safer for original wooden artwork substrates, especially in deeper fragments of sculptured areas. Four case studies of different historical objects with wood as an original substrate material will be presented. In all cases, conservation treatments followed detailed structural stratigraphy of layers and identification of materials. For comparison, paper includes also some citations from authors earlier published works1-2.