Italian Museum Uses Flesh-Eating Bacteria To Clean Michelangelo’s Sculptures
Image via Shutterstock
Nearly 500 years ago, the ruler of Florence, Duke Alessandro de Medici, was assassinated, and his body was placed in his father’s tomb.
Recently, Italian art historians noticed that the marble statues in the Medici Chapel, where the Duke’s body is housed, were starting to appear stained.
In November 2019, Italy’s National Research Council found out what caused the grime: bodily fluids that had leaked from Alessandro de Medici’s improperly embalmed corpse. In order to preserve the marble statues – which were all commissioned by Michelangelo – harsh chemicals or abrasives couldn’t be used to clean them.
Instead, as per CBS News, Anna Rosa Sprocati, a biologist at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, turned to bacteria as the cleaning crew.
Hand-picking specific bacteria from more than 1,000 different kinds, the process saw successes and failures, with some bacteria eating away at the delicate marble too.
Sprocati chose eight of the most promising bacteria, testing them on a ridden section behind the church’s altar. The ones that proved a success were placed on the tomb of Guiliano di Lorenzo, specifically the statues of Night and Day. Surprisingly, the bacteria were able to fully clean Night’s hair and eyes of residue accumulated over time.
The project was interrupted in February 2020 due to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic. Sprocati took her bacteria to the next sculpture, cleaning up wax left by centuries of candles on a huge marble relief of the Meeting of Attila and Pope Leo in St Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
In mid-October, as per The New York Times, the Medici Chapel welcomed back its cleaning agent. The restorers got to work on the sarcophagus of Lorenzo di Piero, Duke of Urbino, buried together with his assassinated son.
“It ate the whole night,” Marina Vincenti, another restorer, said of the bacteria ‘cleaners’.
[via CBS News and The New York Times, cover image via Shutterstock]
Also check out these recent news
