Trattamenti de-solfatanti: una questione sempre aperta. Il cantiere-pilota per il recupero dei dipinti di Gino Grimaldi

The experience presented here refers to an initiative just ended that began in 2013 involving teachers and students of the School of Specialization in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa, CNR researchers, representatives of the Soprintendenza and restorers. The research project aimed to study and fine-tune consolidating and desulphurising treatments on contemporary paints in wet areas with a strong presence of magnesium sulfates. The initiative also opens up the debate on the need / willingness of collaboration between institutions in the area and the possibility / need to optimize resources for the development of knowledge that can produce effective results in interventions. The “school building site” is in S. Maria Addolorata, a church of the former Provincial Psychiatric Hospital of Genoa. The wall paintings on which they took part are part of the pictorial cycle created by Grimaldi, painter and patient of the "asylum". The materials used and the spreading techniques are in some cases also very different, going from traditional materials up to those of the contemporary period. The preliminary diagnosis to the construction site was able to make use of innovative instruments developed by the CNR-ICVBC, for the consolidating and desulphurizing treatment, various products have been considered and different methods and dosages are also experimented. Beyond the specific case, the intervention presented may be of general interest for the particularity of the salts on which we have had to intervene, magnesium sulphates which, due to their characteristics, are currently among the most difficult to treat salts. Furthermore, the experience also shows the broader theme of the ever more pressing need for intervention even on contemporary structures in a state of decay that see the use of techniques and materials on which experimentation is still rather limited at the moment.