Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks XIII: Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks XIII (LACONA XIII), 12-16 September 2022, Florence, Italy

Light allows us not only to see the works of art, but also to take care of them and preserve them for future generations, through diagnosis of the degradation and deterioration phenomena, conservation treatments, and monitoring based on light-material interaction processes. Recent progress on this subject was discussed during the 13th International Conference on Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks (LACONA XIII, Florence, Italy, 12-16 September 2022). This volume includes selected contributions presented at the conference on preservation topics, photonic techniques, and optimization methods. In particular, the papers focus on the development and use of innovative spectroscopic and imaging characterization techniques, the diagnostic knowledge of important artworks, and the optimization of the laser solution for preserving a growing variety of cultural assets, such as stone and metal artefacts, painted surfaces, textile, feather, and plastic artefacts.

Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks XIII aims at scholars and operators of the community of preservation of cultural heritage, at teachers and students of training courses on diagnostic and conservation methods, applied physics, and chemistry, as well as archaeology and art history.

Dr. Salvatore Sian is research director at the Institute of Applied Physics-National Research Council, contract professor at the University of Florence, and at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, Italy. He leads a research group focused on the development and application of advanced laser, optoelectronic, and particle beam techniques for material characterisation and conservation of cultural heritage, and other. Along the last three decades, he has been strongly involved, as coordinator and/or partner leader, in several tens of RTD, networking, and/or dissemination projects dedicated to the optimization of the laser-material interaction processes and the development of innovative analytical approaches, based on UV-IR, Raman, and THz spectroscopy, laser induced plasma spectroscopy, neutron diffraction, and other. His main contributions in conservation of cultural assets include the introduction and exemplar applications of novel laser systems and treatments. At the same time, he also introduced the neutron diffraction in bronze archaeometallurgy and achieved significant advances on the diagnostics of the degradation and deterioration processes, as well as on the interpretation of the execution techniques of a variety of works of art. The whole was validated in investigations and conservation treatments of many important historical artefacts and unique masterpieces by Ghiberti, Donatello, and many others.

Daniele Ciofini is researcher, conservation scientist and expert in laser and spectroscopic techniques for archaeometry and heritage conservation, with M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Science for Cultural Heritage Conservation from the Chemistry Department at the University of Florence in Italy. He joined the Institute of Applied Physics of the National Research Council of Italy (IFAC-CNR) in 2010. In 2014, he was a Ph.D. visiting scientist at the Institute of Physical Chemistry (IQF-CSIC) in Spain. A year later, he undertook short-term research at Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Scientific Research in New York/USA. His research focuses on the development of laser ablation techniques and related analytical methods for the conservation of stone, metals, paintings, paper, textiles and ethnographic objects. He has authored over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and contributions to books, chapters and essays. He also occasionally gives lectures, seminars and workshops at universities and other higher education institutions.