IPERION CHIntegrated Platform for the European Research Infrastructure ON Cultural Heritage

MOLAB

MOLAB (Mobile LABoratory) is a network of facilities from Italy, France, Poland, Greece and Germany, providing a coherent access, under a unified management structure, to a set of portable equipment and related competences, for in-situ non-destructive measurements on artworks. Measurements are carried out in the same site where the actual artwork under examination is located or exhibited, i.e.  museum, restoration workshop, open air location etc.

Motivation for MOLAB arises from the fact that a large number of historical European patrimony consists of monuments, sculptures, buildings and that cannot be moved from their location and this implies that non-invasive material studies on these objects must be necessarily carried out in-situ, through portable instrumentation. In addition, even in the case of movable patrimony (such as paintings, ceramics, gems, manuscripts, etc.) it can be often quite difficult, if not impossible, to move such works to a laboratory, due the high risks and costs connected with their transportation and often fragile state.

Typical MOLAB users are Heritage researchers (either individuals or teams from public and/or private institutions) who are developing studies to:

  • clarify arthistorical or archaeological questions (execution techniques, dating, underdrawings in paintings, etc.
  • assess the state of conservation of artefacts
  • determine or test the optimal preservation strategy to slow down alteration processes; (d) monitor conservation treatments
  • inform risk assessment

 

What can MOLAB offer your project?

  • Your project may be orientated towards art‐historical or archaeological questions (execution techniques, dating, under‐drawings in paintings etc; assessing the state of conservation of artefacts; determine or test the optimal preservation strategy to slow down alteration processes; monitoring conservation treatments and informing risk assessment
  • MOLAB provides: analytical investigations carried out in situ on fragile artworks or precious archaeological pieces so that you don’t have to move them to a  laboratory. This access also allows immovable objects like sculptures, monuments and historical buildings to be studied
  • All the techniques are non invasive, so there is strictly no sampling or contact with the surface under exam
  • All our teams are made up of highly qualified and trained scientific staff that will accompany the portable instruments, help the Users and give tutorials on the use of the instrumentation
  • All the data collected during the MOLAB access automatically belongs to you for publishing and disseminating

 

MOLAB providers

MOLAB Italy: XRF, Raman, Micro-Raman, Vis-NIR reflectance, UV-VIS fluorescence, UV-Vis fluorescence time-decay, Fiber optic near-FTIR, Total reflection mid-FTIR, Macro XRF scanning, Micro XRF scanning, Scanning multispectral Vis-NIR reflectography, Vis hyperspectral imaging, Atomic force microscopy, Confocal microscopy

MOLAB France: Integrated XRF/XRD, SIRT, Thermography, NIR hyperspectral imaging, Terahertz imaging

MOLAB Poland: Optical Coherence Tomography

MOLAB Greece: Digital Holographic Speckle Pattern Interferometry

MOLAB Germany: NMR relaxometry, NMR depth-profiling

 

The MOLAB TNA Helpdesk can provide your draft proposals with any technical and scientific support, anytime, so that tailored proposals can be submitted before the deadlines.

 

Contacts
Name: Costanza Miliani
Phone: +39 075 5855639
Email: costanza.miliani@cnr.it

 

Available techniques