Preventive Conservation of Cultural Heritage Conservação Preventiva Do Patrimônio Cultural

Preventive conservation implies, amongst many other aspects, the characterization of the atmospheric environment around monuments or cultural heritage (CH) items, with the intention to improve the conditions and to contribute to the preservation. We have, over the last two decades, intensively used various forms of X-ray spectrometry and automated electron probe X-ray microanalysis, always together with ion chromatography, micro Raman analysis, on-line soot determinations, gravimetry, etc., to identify particle types and their sources in indoor environments, including museums, while also gaseous indoor pollutants were assessed. The cases studies outlined in the present paper concern the Wawel Castle, in Cracow, Poland, the Alhambra complex in Granada, Spain, and the Plantin-Moretus Printing Museum in Antwerp, Belgium. Some questions that are presently far from having been solved pertain to the deposition processes from the atmosphere to the CH items and the critical surface interactions that take place on the CH items.