Julie Arslanoglu

Biologics in Art: What???

Julie Arslanoglu

Research Scientist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Natural products analysis is at the essence of the job of organic materials scientists in an art museum. Until recently the distinction between the animal or plant sources was the most basic goal. But within the past decade new immunological (Ab) and mass-spectrometric (MS) approaches have catapulted the field of cultural heritage into the world of “-omics” and have opened entirely new levels of complexity and interpretation for our results. This gives us the opportunity to say more than just what material is present, but the historical significance of its biological source, its degradation state and chemical interactions with surrounding materials. At the Met we have developed and adopted both Ab and MS techniques and integrated them in our normal workflow as well as research. The evolution of this process and the importance of the complementary nature of these approaches, as well as the implications of pigments and aging on the analyses of these systems, will be discussed.