Cyprus Institute and Louvre Museum team up on cultural heritage study

The Cyprus Institute and the Louvre Museum in Paris have collaborated on a study on the cultural heritage of Cyprus.

The collaboration between the Andreas Pittas Art Characterisation Laboratories (APAC Labs) of the Cyprus Institute with researchers from the Louvre (C2RMF) and the French Foundation for Cultural Heritage Sciences, "opens new horizons in the study and analysis of treasures of our cultural heritage", an announcement by the Cyprus Institute said.

The development of innovative methods and technologies for the interdisciplinary analysis of works of art and archaeological objects is the subject of close collaboration between leading researchers of the Louvre laboratories and the APAC Labs team of the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Centre of the Cyprus Institute.

Special mention should be made of the development of an original laboratory infrastructure for X-ray fluorescence analysis scanner with the combination of multispectral photography with the kind support of Dr. Andreas Pittas, it is added.

The innovative interdisciplinary method offers unique results of mapping the materiality and stratigraphy of the object or work of art under consideration, the announcement says. The systematic application of the method captures unknown details and data that reveal secrets, record the state of conservation and enrich one's knowledge about the monuments and treasures of the past, it is noted.

The press release said "this original infrastructure was designed and constructed in the "laboratories of the Cyprus Institute, with the aim and specifications adapted to the needs of study and analysis of the monuments and treasures of the cultural heritage of Cyprus and the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East."