As the Minister of Cultural Property of Rome, Dario Franceschini, has recently announced, apparently they have been able to restore two alabaster limestone funeral busts arrived from Syria which components of the Islamic State damaged thanks to the use of 3D printing technologies.
Apparently, to get this work to fruition, the collaboration of experts from the Higher Institute for the Conservation and Restoration of Rome has been sought. As the minister himself has commented, we are facing a work that has been possible thanks to the use of new technologies, a work of which they are very proud as it places great value on the Italian competence in the field of restoration.
Thanks to 3D printing, Syria will be able to recover much of its historical artistic legacy.
If you follow the Syrian news, you will surely remember scenes present in practically all the news and newspapers where you could see how components of the Islamic State attacked all kinds of sculptures to try to destroy them as much as possible. Once Palmyra could be freed, Syrian archaeologists decided to remove all kinds of valuable works of art and hide them in a safe in the central bank Syrian, located in Damascus, something that has made it possible to carry out this operation.
As he commented Gisella Capponi, currently director of the Higher Institute for Conservation and Restoration:
These two busts from Palmyra were heavily damaged by the Islamic State inside the museum. The two works were hanging on the walls, they could not be protected and they suffered the attack, losing very significant parts of the face.
Thanks to the use of 3D technologies, it was possible to create a prosthesis by means of a laser scan that was manufactured by 3D printing to later be attached to the face of the sculpture by magnets.