Preface 

The 5th International Conference LACONA V (Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks) was held in Osnabruck (Germany) in September 2003.

LACONA’s aim is to provide an opportunity for scientists from universities and research laboratories to meet and especially for restorers, art historians and laser manufacturers to present and discuss new results concerning the application of laser technology in the restoration of artworks. This conference also offers opportunities to initiate cooperative projects between professionaly from the various fields of science and its application.

In 1995 this idea was realized for the first time by Professor Costas Fotakis from Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas Institute (FO.R.T.H.) in Crete, Greece, where 100 international attendees took part in LACONA I. Since then the field of “Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks” has gained considerably in importance. As a consequence a large number of nationally (e.g. DBU, Germany) and internationally funded (e.g. EU) research projects have been carried out.

Furthermore international working groups were established (e.g. COST G7). There has also been a substantial increase in publications concerning laser application in restoration since LACONA I. It has turned out that a close cooperation between scientists and restorers seems to be of utmost importance for the future of laser applications in artwork restoration. Based on the success of LACONA I , other LACONAs were organized: 1997 in Liverpool, 1999 in Florence and 2001 in Paris.

LACONA V took place at the modern “Center for Environment Communication (ZUK) of the German Federal Environment Foundation (DBU)” from September 15-18, 2003. There were more than 80 presentations (50 oral, 30 posters) given by attendees coming from all over the world. While there was a distinct decrease in presentations compared to previous LACONAs for specific topics (e.g. laser cleaning of stone) the number of contributions in other fields such as analyses and diagnostics strongly increased. This is also true for online-monitoring during laser cleaning.

I am grateful to the members of the Scientific Committee as well as to the Editorial Committee for their advice and support in reviewing all papers. I also acknowledge the sponsorship by the “German Federal Environment Foundation (DBU)” and the administrative support of the “Center for Environment Communication (ZUK)”.

I would like to give my thanks to Dr. John F . Asmus, the pioneer in laser cleaning, and to Professor Costas Fotakis, founder of LACONA, for the many stimulating discussions and their assistance to LACONA V.

Klaus Dickmann

Steinfurt, August 2004