Conservation and Restoration of Historical Heritage

High-energy radiation has a strong effect on the biological or chemical properties of materials, an effect that can be used to disinfest cultural assets and help restore them.

Quite unlike chemical or physical methods, radiation leaves no residue on such objects and they do not become radioactive.

Conservation and Restoration is the discipline responsible for the recovery, protection, intervention, management, research and dissemination of the cultural heritage of a community, region or country.

Community assets are an important part of a country's cultural heritage.

Such conservation of existing ones can pose a major challenge since there are many factors that affect their condition, among them we have: Inadequate storage conditions, climate change, or adverse situations such as floods and fires . All of this can lead to a deterioration or even a complete loss of the world's cultural heritage.

Chemical and physical methods have been developed to treat and restore cultural heritage assets. However, chemical methods can leave undesirable chemical moieties on materials, whereas physical methods are usually quite extreme and therefore not suitable for all types of materials.

On the contrary, radiation technologies do not harm the goods themselves. They can be used to destroy parasites that threaten works of art and to assess any internal damage they may have caused.

Radiation techniques have been used for many years to treat various cultural heritage assets. Several national and international research programmes have worked on the development of harmonized methodologies for radiation treatment, which, in turn, have led to the general acceptance of radiation technology for the treatment of cultural heritage assets.

IAEA is leading a coordinated research project to support the application of nuclear techniques in cultural heritage research.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ysxDe4CWDE

Restoration of Historical Heritage

Undergraduate Degree in Conservation and Restoration of Movable Cultural Heritage - Universidad Externado de Colombia