[Exterior of the Louvre Museum with the glass pyramid]
[Exterior of Le Louvre wing housing the Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France (C2RMF)]
[Sign outside a wing of the Louvre’s Centre for Research and Restoration]
[Pulley inside the center’s underground laboratory with sculptures]
[Laser room with two statues, originally from the bridgehead of the south portal of the transept of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris]
[Sign reading “Laser room”]
[Shutter being brought down inside the laser room]
[Lead restorer Helene Susini with Infinito laser in hand]
[Technician Helene Susini using Infinito laser to clean sculpture]
[Infinito’s operating touchscreen panel]
[Susini using Infinito laser to clean sculpture]
[Dermatologist and Scientific Director of La Roche-Posay at L’Oréal, Delphine Kerob and Helene Susini talking]
[Delphine Kerob talking]
Delphine Kerob (interview): “It’s absolutely fascinating to see how these two lasers are used to improve the stones, are also in dermatology (used) to improve the skin aspect. Both lasers are complementary; they are targeting different… they have different wavelengths, they are targeting different (…) also chromophores or using the heat, and one [laser] is ablative, the other is not ablative, so they will have different benefits but also different side effects. So care is very important on the skin, and here, it’s also very important on the stone to make sure that it’s not too ablative.”
[Technician Helene Susini using Infinito laser to clean sculpture, remove dirt]
[16th-century Ecce Homo statue after a three-month restoration]
Laetitia Barragué-Zouita (interview): “So for us, it is extremely important because in the sculpture field, many pieces we have to restore, were displayed outdoors and have black crust or thick grime on the surface. And sometimes, the limestone is more fragile than the black crusts. And we have to find a way to clean them up without damaging the original material. And a laser, which has only a thermal and a mechanical action, helps us not to damage the original surface. So it’s a lifesaver in fact for us.”
[Monitor showing statue’s original state and the restored statue in the Louvre]
[Restored statue showing the original layers of color painted onto the statue in medieval times]
Laetitia Barragué-Zouita (interview): “(Lasers) help us to operate on a wider range of materials but also to work faster, because particularly with the Infinito laser, it is more powerful, it is very helpful when we have thick black crust or grime, and it helps the workshop to be more efficient for the museums.”
[Susini using Infinito laser with a different setting on a Notre Dame Cathedral sculpture]
Delphine Kerob (interview): “Both the skin and the pieces of art will suffer from the time (passing), from also the environment, such as UV, exposure, pollution, climate changes, humidity, and they will have an impact on the aspect both on the skin and piece of art, but they can also suffer from treatments. So this is why it is very important to choose the right device with the right issue and with the right parameters also on the device, and make sure we will treat the issue but not harm the skin or the piece of work.”
[Susini switching on a different laser machine]
Helene Susini (interview): “It’s essentially used for the clearance of organic material.”
[Susini holding a cotton bud and grabbing the Erbium Airbrush laser]
[Susini using the Erbium Airbrush laser by El En on a statue from the Notre Dame Cathedral]
Laetitia Barragué-Zouita (interview): “When the sculpture was black, it was altered, maybe because of loss of matter, and someone decided to paint in black some losses in order to unify the surface. And this black paint was removed thanks to Erbium, and it was the best way to proceed in that case. So it was extremely convenient for us. Otherwise, it would be very complicated to remove this black painting without damaging the original polychromy underneath.”
[Curator Laetitia Barragué-Zouita looking at the closed Triptyque du Maître de Moulins (1502) by Jean Hey inside the paintings room at the C2RMF]
[Window showing the exterior of the Louvre building]
[Exterior of the Louvre from the Tuileries Garden]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.