Damage assessment of museum environments using paint-based dosimetry.

Paint dosimeters for assessing damage to cultural heritage, in particular to paintings in art galleries, museums and historic sites, were developed as part of the Environmental Research for Art Conservation (ERA) project (contract no. EV5V-CT94-0548). Test sites were selected on the basis of differences in degree of indoor environmental control, and whether they were located in urban or semi-rural areas in both northern and southern Europe. Measurements were also taken at nine sites within the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Curators and conservation scientists supervised the exposure of the paint dosimeters and provided information on the indoor environmental conditions for the period of exposure. Paint strips were analyzed prior to and after their exposure at the sites, and also after artificial ageing. This paper describes the ranking of the sites in terms of measured dosimeter damage, and the results of the Rijksmuseum test.