Art: ENEA scientists unleash bacteria to clean Michelangelo's marbles

17 June 2021

Three bacterial strains from the ENEA in-house collection have been used for the restoration of Michelangelo's masterpieces in the New Sacristy at the Medici Chapels in Florence. The bio-cleaning intervention, featured also on the front page of the New York Times, was conducted by an all-woman team of scientists and restorers deploying 'grime-eating bacteria” to remove centuries of dirt besmirching the funerary monuments of Lorenzo de 'Medici, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours.