engleski

Radiation Technology for the Protection of Artworks and Cultural Heritage - an Overview of Success Stories in Croatia - IN MEMORY OF DUŠAN RAŽEM, PhD

Both chemical and physical methods have been developed for the treatment and restoration of cultural heritage artefacts. However, chemical methods may leave undesirable chemicals, and the conventional physical methods generally use extreme conditions that are not suitable for some types of materials. Gamma irradiation has several advantages compared to conventional preservation methods, mainly related to safety both for the users and environment, efficiency, reliability, capacity, and, as mentioned, processing time. As the radiation technique has many advantages in the conservation treatment of cultural artefacts, the interest in radiation treatment has significantly increased worldwide in recent years. Radiation methods are effectively used in the Radiation Chemistry and Dosimetry Laboratory (RCDL) at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) in Zagreb, which has a long- lasting experience, especially in the application of irradiation for the preservation of cultural heritage objects.1 Numerous works of art have been successfully irradiated for disinfection purposes, such as wooden sculptures, church altars or their parts, artefacts from various museum collections, books, archival documents, musical instruments, ethnographic objects, archaeological findings and various historical collections. In order to increase the knowledge of the advantages and limitations of nuclear technology for cultural heritage applications, it is important to evaluate possible irreversible physical or chemical modifications induced by ionizing radiation on treated materials. So far, the results obtained have shown that radiation disinfection of cultural heritage can be successfully achieved and safely applied with no significant changes or modifications of the main properties of the constitutive materials of the processed objects. 1. Katušin-Ražem, B., Ražem, D., Braun, M. Irradiation treatment for the protection and conservation of cultural heritage artefacts in Croatia. Radiation Physics and Chemistry 78 (2009), 729-731.

radiation technology ; cultural heritage protection

Predavanje je održala K. Marušić