Abstract
Microclimate for cultural heritage plays a fundamental role in the degradation process of artefacts exhibited in museums. Generally, the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring inside museums is based on conventional measurements of thermo-hygrometry parameters and longtime averaged measurements of atmospheric pollutants’ concentration. Unfortunately, all these approaches require electric supply and are usually characterized by a noticeable visual impact on the exhibition space, which clearly negatively affects the visitors’ experience. This paper intends to revisit and discuss a methodology (and its test application on field, to estimate the risk of damage of three artefacts displayed in an old museum of Palermo – Italy) perhaps prematurely underestimated that could usefully be re-proposed in particular contexts in which it is necessary to be careful to be as less invasive as possible, as in the case of museums housed in buildings of particular historical-cultural prestige. The discussed approach uses a non-destructive (or minimally invasive, at least) technique consisting in using two types of coupons, bi-metallic and marble ones, that allows an off-line monitoring of the indoor air aggressiveness inside museums, while avoiding consuming electricity and undesirable visual impacts on the site. Specifically, the estimated coupon damage is regarded as gauge to air aggressiveness, in order to provide an early warning of the risk of damage for the artefacts made of materials similar to those which the coupons are made of. Based on the considerations reported in the paper, the indirect evaluation of the air chemical aggressiveness through the assessment of the bi-metallic and marble coupons’ erosion seems to still candidates itself as a feasible method to be applied in complex exhibition scenes.
Highlights
Microclimate for cultural heritage plays a fundamental role in the degradation process of artefacts exhibited in museums
The microclimate surrounding the “Alhambra” Malaga Amphora is, instead, such that the thickness of corrosion is constantly over the danger threshold. This result may be justified by the fact that it is positioned in a room of the building that is significantly exposed to external environmental conditions
The present work started from considerations regarding the possibility of give new visibility to electricity-free and visually-low-impacting methods to assess and monitor the overall indoor air aggressiveness inside museums in terms of deterioration of materials
Summary
Microclimate for cultural heritage plays a fundamental role in the degradation process of artefacts exhibited in museums. Sudden variations in T and RH can, for instance, induce internal stresses, which could in turn generate cumulative and irreversible alterations of the chemical and physical properties of the artefacts, so as to accelerate their degradation [1] To avoid such circumstances, and preserving the important cultural heritage items stored within museums, indoor environmental conditions inside the exhibition halls should be properly monitored and controlled [2, 3]. While at European level, the EN 15757 [6] need to mentioned, representing one of the most important standards aimed at museums, galleries, storage areas, archives, libraries, churches and modern or historical buildings This standard, in order to limit climate-induced physical damage on long-term stored/exhibited hygroscopic organic materials, specifies T and RH levels to maintain in the indoor environments. Such regulation prescribes a methodology for the on-field measurement of environmental thermo-hygrometric and lighting quantities for the purposes of proper conservation of historical and artistic goods and provides information on the methods to adopt for processing and synthesize the data collected for their evaluation aimed at containing decay processes
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