Art And Air Pollution

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 13

Art And Air Pollution

ANCIENT bronze and other A V art works may have survived thousands of years of burial but can they endure the air pollution of modern 1 times? asks the “Christian; Science Monitor.” A few years of foul air can turn a delicate green patina: to a dull black. Works of art which have stood in museums since the late 1800 s, have suddenly, in the last few years, begun to react adversely to air pollutants. In some cases disintegration and crumbling have set in. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts says the problem is serious. New York museums also have been bothered by it. Smog - enshrouded Los Angeles, by some curious turn, doesn’t seem to have a problem. Its mild climate — no temperature extremes, no freezings and thawings, and temperate humidity—appears to offset whatever the smog might do. Detroit also gives the problem scant notice. But other art-centered cities are enough aroused to view it as a serious threat.