Exhibits of Louvre will be protected from external damage with an ultra-thin layer of graphene produced with Armenian technology. The inventor of the new method, Dr. Gagik Shmavonyan, Associate Professor at the National Polytechnic University of Armenia, was invited to Louvre to test his technology in practice, together with French colleagues.
They have already chosen exhibits on which to apply sample graphene coatings. Further research is in progress.
In 2016, Shmavonyan patented his new nanotechnology of graphene production. It requires less resource and time, compared to present-day technologies.
Graphene, a 1 atom thin film of carbon, was discovered by Soviet-school scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, which brought them the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics. They keep sharing their research with colleagues, encouraging the improvement of technology.
Shmavonyan, who worked in one of their laboratories, came up with his own method, which he patented in Spain in 2016.
The discovery met a large international response. Preservation specialists at Louvre considered it as a new way to protect museum collections from external damage. Being unimaginably thin, graphene is effectively invisible and keeps full exposure. Mona Lisa, Venus of Milos, Michelangelo’s Slaves and countless of other masterpieces will be protected from bacteria, humidity and temperature fluctuations.
Today, research is carried out in Cergy-Pontoise University in Paris, as well as the laboratories of Louvre and two European particle accelerators, Soleil (France) and Elettra (Italy).
A new evidence that caution is never too much came in summer 2016, when waters of Seine rose by 6,5 m, coming close to the low-level storage areas of the museum. 150 thousand pieces of art had to be evacuated.
Recently Shmavonyan completed another session of research with his French peers. Other institutions and companies are considering the innovation. Catholic church of France wants to use it to preserve the dome of Notre-Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg, and the Museum of Music of Philarmonie de Paris wants to protect musical instruments, both when on display and when given to famous musicians for touring.
