Designing paint mock-ups for a study of novel surface cleaning techniques for Munch's unvarnished aula paintings

Edvard Munch’s (1863–1944) unvarnished oil paintings (1909–16) in the Aula of the University of Oslo have a long conservation history, including issues associated with soiling and cleaning. Despite the high frequency of previous cleaning campaigns, the removal of dirt and soot from these surfaces continues to be a challenge. This paper relates to ongoing research into novel methods for surface dirt removal (soft-particle blasting CO2-snow, and Nanorestore Gel® Peggy and Dry series). The paper discusses the first steps of this research, focussing on the preparation of mock-up painting samples that will be used to evaluate the effects and to optimise these methods, hence the rationale and limitations of using simplified samples to represent real paintings are discussed. The aim of the wider study is to devise appropriate cleaning strategies for the Aula paintings.