Spanish mother-daughter duo uses bacteria to restore artworks

Spain – Microbiologist Pilar Bosch and her mother Pilar Roig have teamed up on a £3.40m ($4.46m, €4.04m) project, funded by local foundations, to use bacteria for restoring historical artworks in Valencia. The microbiologist trains the bacteria by feeding them samples of glue made from animal collagen. The bacteria then naturally produce enzymes to degrade the glue, after which the enzyme-rich solution is mixed with a natural algae-based gel and spread on the paintings. After three hours, the gel is removed to reveal glue-free paintings. 

The technique was born from Roig’s challenges while restoring 18th-century paintings by Antonio Palomino in Santos Juanes church, one of the oldest in Valencia. One of the main problems she encountered was removing the glue used to pull the frescoes from the church’s walls.  

‘In the past, we used to work in a horrible manual way, with warm water and sponges that took hours and damaged the painting,’ Roig said. Bosch is now training cohorts of a different kind of bacteria to clear walls of spray-painted graffiti.  

This innovative use of bacteria reflects a larger trend toward biofabrication and the exciting opportunities it presents, as explored in our Biofabricated Futures report.