Book of Proceedings

LACONA VIII : Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks

Preface

The meeting of cultures should offer our children and grand children ‘the privilege of belonging to several worlds in a single life’, to quote a French anthropologist (Serge GRUZINSKI).

The International Conference on Laser in Conservation of Artworks—LACONA VIII follows the prestigious series of conferences initiated by Prof. Costas Fotakis organizing LACONA 1-1995 in Her­aklion, Greece. This was followed by LACONA 11-1997 in Liverpool UK, LACONA III—I 999 in Flor­ence, Italy, LACONA IV-2001 in Paris, France, LACONA V-2003 in Osnabruck, Germany, LACONA VI-2005 in Vienna, Austria, LACONA VII-2007 in Madrid, Spain. The success of these unique confer­ences motivated the members of the Permanent Scientific Committee to stress the international address-ability of the biennial event and honored Romanian partners to organize the eight edition for the first time in one of the East-European countries.

The LACONA VIII event—an invitation to dialogue between specialists from different geo-cultural area, and a dialogue between different professional fields for the benefit of a common heritage- was organized in Sibiu, between 21 and 25 September 2009, by INOE – The National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics with precious collaboration of local authorities and cultural institutions.

Today, a new affirmation regarding the role of science in Cultural Heritage conservation is almost a truism, but I am sure that the research field dynamics and tendencies are of great interest. I am glad to see that new knowledge boundaries are defined and the papers of scientific community groove a strong and interrelated international activity. The public discussions and the open dialogue during Round Table Session reaffirmed the inexhaustible efforts for correlation of analytical investigation, for trainings and know-how transfer by recognized professional authorities, for international certification of validated methods. Due to their accuracy, high sensibility, and versatility, the laser methods are recommended for remote controlled investigation, for transportable, portable, and tele-operated instrumentation.

This Volume of Proceedings comprises selected contributions related laser induced phenomenas, laser investigations and documentation of most recent laboratory ‘studies and on-site applications. For this volume I was honoured to receive a priceless and generous support from all co-editors: John F. Asmus, Marta Castillejo, Paraskevi Pauli, Austin Nevin.

I like to put in light a very discrete and special person who supports with enthusiasm our activities from the first moment of the first project. The team of CERTO Department is thankful to Dr. Roxana Savastru for her full involvement, for never lost energy, and not less for the wonderful lesson of professional and management commitments.

Roxana Rădvan

LACONA VIII Chair

Bucharest, September 2010