Spanish microbiologist Pilar Bosch discovered that bacteria can be utilized in the restoration of artworks, a field her mother specializes in.
At the same time, her mother, Pilar Roig, was struggling with the restoration of 18th-century paintings by the artist Antonio Palomino at the Santos Juanes Church, one of the oldest churches in Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city.
She found it particularly challenging to remove the remaining layers of glue on the frescoes after they were detached from the church walls during restoration efforts in the 1960s.
“My mother faced a very difficult problem, and I found an article about a type of bacteria used to clean frescoes in Italy,” said Bosch, 42, who completed her doctoral thesis on that project.
Pilar Bosch (right) and her mother Pilar Roig (center) with project director Jose Luis Regidor at a museum in Valencia, Spain. (Photo: Reuters).
More than a decade later, the mother-daughter duo collaborated on a €4 million project, funded by local organizations, to employ various techniques in the restoration of artworks in Valencia.
The microbiologist trains bacteria by feeding them a glue sample made from animal collagen. Then the bacteria naturally produce enzymes to break down the glue.
They mix the bacteria with natural algae gel and apply it to the paintings removed from the walls in the 1960s before re-nailing them. After three hours, the bacteria degrades the glue, and the gel layer is removed, revealing paintings free from glue residue.
Roig, now 75, whose father, grandfather, and other relatives also worked in the field of art conservation, stated: “In the past, we used to work very manually, with warm water and sponges, taking hours and sometimes damaging the paintings.”
Bosch has also applied the use of bacteria to restoration projects in Pisa and Monte Cassino in Italy, as well as in Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Currently, she is training different bacterial groups to remove graffiti paint from walls.
