Chemists from the University of Warsaw (UW), working with the Conservation Department of the National Museum in Warsaw, have developed a solution that allows them to remove wax-resin mass from old canvases and thus restore the original colors of works of art.

The material developed by chemists is a type of organogel based on a polymer network reinforced with nanostructures, according to the University of Warsaw. Organogel contains a mixture of solvents that dissolves and removes the wax-resin mass, and at the same time has no negative effect on the remaining layers of the image.

The invention was tested at the National Museum in Warsaw and at the Conservation and Restoration Workshop of Movable Painting and Polychrome Wooden Sculpture at the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, on a painting from the second half of the 18th century.

Dr Eng. Przemysław Dubel, head of the University Center for Technology Transfer at the University of Warsaw, emphasizes that the invention has a market potential and that centers responsible for restoration of works of art will most likely be interested in it.