Innovative Materials and Methods for the conservation of archaelogical metallic artefacts

An extensive and up-to-date investigation of the needs and expectations of European and Mediterranean mueseums and archaelogical historical sites was carried out in the framwork of both international EU and Italian projects. The assessment of the results clearly evidenced a lack of reliable and long term efficient safe materials and methods for the conservation of metals in the Mediterranean basin, where the wealth of cultural property has a major impact on tourism. The chemical composition and metallurgical features of a large number of archaeological metallic artefacts were investigated by different analytical surface and bulk techniques for the indentification of degradation agents and mecchanisms. The production of reference copper and silver-based alloys was the first step of an original experimental protocol to be used in the field of conservation of metal artefacts. These modern alloys can be used both as sacrifical substrates for testing new materials and methods for conservation and also as reference specimens for monitoring museum microclimate.