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[00:00.04]Spanish scientist Pilar Bosch

[00:03.88]has found a way to use bacteria

[00:07.16]to repair 18th-century paintings.

[00:11.48]Bosch, a microbiologist,

[00:14.68]tells Reuters she got the idea for the method

[00:19.20]while considering possibilities for a paper

[00:23.16]toward her doctoral degree.

[00:25.68]During this process,

[00:28.20]she discovered someone else's paper

[00:31.24]that suggested bacteria

[00:33.72]can be used to restore artworks.

[00:37.92]At around the same time,

[00:40.56]Bosch learned that her mother

[00:42.60]was struggling to find a good method

[00:45.56]for restoring 18th-century paintings.

[00:49.52]The paintings, by Spanish artist Antonio Palomino,

[00:54.92]sat in Santos Juanes

[00:57.64]– one of the oldest churches in the city of Valencia.

[01:02.56]Bosch said her mother, Pilar Roig,

[01:06.48]noted how difficult the restoration process

[01:10.80]at the church was.

[01:13.24]One reason was the glue used

[01:16.40]to remove the paintings from the walls in the 1960s.

[01:21.60]The substance was nearly impossible

[01:24.68]to remove completely.

[01:26.44]"My mother had a very difficult problem to solve

[01:30.92]and I found a paper about bacteria

[01:34.12]used to clean frescoes in Italy," Bosch said.

[01:39.32]A fresco is a kind of painting that

[01:42.84]often appears across a large wall.

[01:46.48]Bosch added she decided

[01:49.08]to write her doctoral paper on the same subject.

[01:53.32]That was more than ten years ago.

[01:56.84]Today, she gets to work with her mother

[02:00.16]on the church restoration.

[02:02.52]They are using the bacteria method

[02:05.48]to remove glue from artworks.

[02:08.88]The $4.46 million project

[02:12.84]is being financed by local organizations.

[02:17.08]The process involves

[02:19.16]feeding small amounts of the glue

[02:22.04]– made from animal collagen – to the bacteria.

[02:26.56]After a time, the bacteria begins

[02:29.92]to naturally produce enzymes

[02:32.84]to break down the glue.

[02:35.36]The mother-daughter team then mixes the bacteria

[02:40.12]with a natural algae-based substance, called a gel,

[02:45.32]and places it onto the paintings.

[02:48.04]They say that after about three hours,

[02:51.92]the gel mixture is removed,

[02:54.44]leaving the paintings glue-free.

[02:57.92]Bosch's mother, now 75,

[03:02.04]noted that in the past,

[03:04.44]restorers of artworks had to use

[03:07.52]traditional cleaning methods

[03:09.32]that "took hours and damaged the painting."

[03:13.40]She noted that several other relatives in the family

[03:17.92]also work in art restoration.

[03:21.00]Bosch agreed, saying the work

[03:24.12]"certainly runs in the family."

[03:26.76]Bosch has also used her bacteria removal process

[03:31.64]in other restoration projects in Italy and Spain.

[03:36.84]And, she is now training other scientists

[03:40.84]to use a different kind of bacteria

[03:43.84]to clear walls of painted graffiti.

[03:47.60]I'm Bryan Lynn.

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Words in This Story

restore – v. to repair something old

church – n. a building where people go to worship God

glue – n. a substance used to stick things together

graffiti – n. writings or art painted on walls and public places, usually illegally