Bio-restoration of Sansovino's Madonna del parto in Rome

The sculptural group by Jacopo Sansovino in the Basilica of Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio, Rome, has been restored using biosustainable technologies known as bio-restoration. The Madonna with Child, commonly called Madonna del parto, now shines again thanks to collaboration between the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma and Intesa Sanpaolo under the Restituzioni program and the OEM Laboratory of ENEA. The intervention, led by restorer Anna Borzomanti, lasted six months and applied non-traditional methodologies. The process involved three phases: diagnostic study to identify substances in the marble porosity, use of organic solvents followed by biological restoration using microorganisms that metabolically remove incoherent substances, and finally laser instrumentation to restore light and shadow refractions. Professor Giorgio Bonsanti, scientific curator of Restituzioni Intesa Sanpaolo, noted that bacteria of different strains can eliminate waxes and paraffins, which are most harmful to ancient artworks, though such research is still experimental and not widespread. This restoration is the first for the capital under the Restituzioni program, which since 1989 has returned over two thousand works to the public, including paleochristian floor mosaics of the Basilica of Aquileia, frescoes by Lanfranco in the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro in Naples Cathedral, and those by Altichiero and Avanzo in the Cappella di San Giacomo in the Basilica del Santo in Padua.