Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to work on a bunch of very esoteric projects.

I’ve found microbes that degrade honest-to-goodness solid waste (HGSW), recalcitrant chemicals (aromatic hydrocarbons, among others), harvest gold from the ground, etc..  The trick is finding the right microbes that effect the change desired.  (In a few cases, the trick was forcing a mutation in the strain the deliver the desired results.)

We even were involved in the restoration of a waste lagoon (or lake)- replete with copperas and titanium dioxide.  Finding the right set of  microbes that could allow the copperas and titanium dioxide to settle out- and then be recovered from bottom of the lagoon helped clean up the toxic mess.

All of this was to provide an explanation as to the benefits of microbes that can address problems that seem to be beyond solution.

Which is exactly what a teams of art restorers and scientists did in Florence, Italy.  I admit my knowledge of art restoration comes from reading Daniel Silva’s series of books about Gabriel Allon- a (fictional)  Israeli spy who also is a world-class art restorer.  And, no, Gabriel never resorted to microbial enhancement- but, then, again, Gabriel’s efforts are all related to paintings.

When you think the art of Florence, Italy, Michelangelo comes to mind.  And, his medium was Carrara marble. The problem is that over the centuries, air pollution, water spills and water flows- and even corpses (in particular Alessandro Medici’s)- has led to the accumulation of grime and stubborn stains on these priceless art treasures.  Those remain despite all the ‘face lifts’ and blemish removals effected to restore the treasures.

And, back in 2016, one of the primary restorers (M Vincenti) attended a conference where AR Sprocati (a microbiologist) described the efforts to remove iron stains that arose from mine draining waters that were deposited on the Carraci Gallery objects in Rome.  So a team (D. Magrini, D. Manna, P. D’Agostino, M. Bietti- as well as Vincenti and Sprocati) decided that this sort of experiment could be used to remove the grime and stubborn stains from the various Michelangelo marble treasures.

Then, along came the COVID-19 pandemic- which meant the Medici Chapel would be closed to the public.  So, using bacteria would not put the public at risk.  A variety of microbes were chosen- Serratia ficaria SH7, Pseudomonas stutzeri CONC11, Rhodococcus sp ZCONT- among them.  All of them removed various grime and dirt- but didn’t harm the Carrara marble.

The Serratia feeds on glue, oil, body phosphates (this was needed because of the Alessandro Medici’s corpse). Rhodococcus also removed the glue and oil deposits.  The Pseudomonas helped with some hair restoration.

And, now that the pandemic is over, the Medici Chapel’s treasures have been fully restored and are ready to meet the public.

Thanks to some microbes- and some creative art restorers.

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