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Rethinking and evaluating the role of historical buildings in the preservation of fragile artworks: the case study of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice

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Abstract

In this work, we present the results of the analysis of the indoor behavior of temperature and relative humidity in the space of temporary exhibitions of the Gallerie dell’Accademia Museum in Venice (Italy), located in the ancient Santa Maria della Carità Church. The museum was monitored from May to October 2019 during the exhibition “Baselitz-Academy”. This research analyzed the microclimate using a tailored methodology for the study of indoor climate in historical buildings." This methodology is based on the calculation of daily and weekly fluctuations, as well as the speed of weekly fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity. Additionally, the microclimate in the monitored rooms were compared by calculating the indices of climate excursions (ICE) for each type of fluctuation. In the Santa Maria della Carità church, the analysis shows that the current use of an adapted air conditioning system plus the hygrothermal inertia of the building ensures a stable ambience, appropriate for the conservation needs of fragile artworks with little fluctuations.

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Data Availability Statement

This manuscript has associated data in a data repository. [Authors’ comment: The data that support the findings of this study are available from GALLERIE DELL'ACCADEMIA, restrictions may apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of GALLERIE DELL'ACCADEMIA.].

Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not relevant for this research.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Patricia Schroepfer for the English corrections.

Funding

This study was funded by the Department of Environmental Science, Informatics and Statistics (ADIR DAIS) of Ca’Foscari University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

P. Lucero wrote the manuscript, participated in the monitoring campaigns, made the calculations of 4 ICES and contributed substantially to the analysis of research data, and corrected the article; V. Farinelli participated in the monitoring campaign and elaborated the map of the loggers; E. Balliana participated in the monitoring campaign, and contributed with the correction of the article; L. Signorelli participated in the monitoring campaign; S. Salvini critically read the article; E.Zendri supervised the research work and critically read the manuscript and corrected it.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paola Lucero-Gómez.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Appendices

Appendix

Historical T and RH in Venice

See Table 5.

See Fig. 6.

Table 5 Average, maximum and minimum value for RH and T in the considered period with standard deviation. The precision is related to the instruments used
Fig. 6
figure 6

Partial map of Venice indicating the location of the Church of Santa Maria della Carità in the Gallerie dell’Accademia complex and of the Istituto Cavanis where the ARPAV station is located

Outdoor dew temperature (Ts) vs Indoor Ts for each data logger

See Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Fig. 7
figure 7

Outdoor Ts vs. Indoor Ts for D1

Fig. 8
figure 8

Outdoor Ts vs. Indoor Ts for D2

Fig. 9
figure 9

Outdoor Ts vs. Indoor Ts for D3

Fig. 10
figure 10

Outdoor Ts vs. Indoor Ts for D4

Fig. 11
figure 11

Outdoor Ts vs. Indoor Ts for D5

Fig. 12
figure 12

Outdoor Ts vs. Indoor Ts for D6

Detailed results for partial scores and ICE calculation for D1 to D6

See Tables 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Table 6 Partial scores and global ICE for DF, WF and SWF for Data logger 1 (D1) in Room 1 blue
Table 7 Partial scores and global ICE for DF, WF and SWF for Data loggers 2 (D2) and 3 (D3) in room 2 blue
Table 8 Partial scores and global ICE for DF, WF and SWF for Data loggers 4 (D4) and 5 (D5) in Room 3 blue
Table 9 Partial scores and global ICE for DF, WF and SWF for Data logger 6 (D6) corridor

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Lucero-Gómez, P., Balliana, E., Farinelli, V. et al. Rethinking and evaluating the role of historical buildings in the preservation of fragile artworks: the case study of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 150 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-02311-0

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