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Nuclear magnetic resonance in contemporary art: the case of “Moon Surface” by Turcato

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Abstract

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methodologies were applied to characterize the constitutive materials and the state of degradation of a contemporary painting. The investigation was mandatory to plan a suitable restoration.

Noninvasive, portable NMR allowed the detection of degraded regions of the painting based on the measurement of longitudinal relaxation time. A few samples were investigated by high resolution solid state NMR and NMR in solution, which allowed us to identify the polyurethane constituting the artefact, to investigate the microstructure in detail, and to assess that the degradation process mostly affected the ethylene units used to cap the polypropylene oxide polymeric chain. As a matter of fact, a shortening of longitudinal relaxation time was accompanied by a degradation of ethylene units.

The degradation of the inorganic loading was investigated by 27Al MAS, which evidenced the absence of penta-coordinated aluminum in degraded samples.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli, conservator, and Luciana Tozzi and Barbara Cisternino, restorers to the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Rome for their kind assistance and collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Magnetic Resonance Laboratory “Annalaura Segre”, Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche, CNR, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria km. 29,300, 00015, Monterotondo (Rome), Italy

    Noemi Proietti, Valeria Di Tullio & Donatella Capitani

  2. Dipartimento di Chimica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Roberta Tomassini & Marcella Guiso

Authors
  1. Noemi Proietti
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  2. Valeria Di Tullio
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  3. Donatella Capitani
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  4. Roberta Tomassini
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  5. Marcella Guiso
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Correspondence to Donatella Capitani.

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Proietti, N., Di Tullio, V., Capitani, D. et al. Nuclear magnetic resonance in contemporary art: the case of “Moon Surface” by Turcato. Appl. Phys. A 113, 1009–1017 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7729-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7729-9

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