Quanta System, a leading medical, industrial and scientific laser manifacturer, located at Solbiate Olona (Varese) has donated to Pope Benedict XVI a special laser for fine arts conservation. The event has been held in Rome, in the occasion of the annual meeting of the company, with all the Quanta System’s worldwide distribution network attending.
Professor Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, Professor Santamaria, director of the scientific laboratories, Professor Nesselrath and Maestro De Luca, clara fama restorers, attended the donation ceremony held on April 17th 2008. His eminence Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, Minister of the Internal Affairs and President of the Vatican City State Governorate, has received by the hands of Dr. Paolo Salvadeo, general manager of Quanta System, the laser on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal Lajolo has inaugurated the ceremony with his welcome speech.
Thunder ART, as this laser has been named, will be used for restoring important masterpieces of Michelangelo in the Paoline Chapel. This system slightly differentiates itself from those already operative in the Holy See. It has a particular wavelength, the UV: besides infrared and green, its ultraviolet rays will be experimented and then used in restoration works of polychromatic surfaces, for example on paintings and frescoes.
The donation occurred only after the company has gained in these years the trust of the Vatican Museums and of the whole Restoration Team, which has been working, since several years, with Quanta System machines and with lasers of the El.En. Group, which Quanta System belongs to.
"It is with great honor and delight that I am going to perform the donation of a special laser for fine arts conservation. Since several years we have been desiring to do something really special – the General Manager of Quanta System SPA, Eng. Paolo Salvadeo, said – I do hope that this donation could effectively give strong help to donate new life, while respecting the valuable patinas and the original textures, to masterpieces created by Great Artists, which have left, also here in the Holy See, an indelible sign in the history of Mankind.”
At the end of the ceremony Cardinal Lajolo has switched the laser on, generating the first light rays, using Bluetooth commands, through a digital keypad with the image of the Sistina Chapel in background. The software menù, for the occasion, has been written in Latin.
Quanta System has realized several lasers active all over the world to donate new life to work of art masterpieces which would risk, in the opposite case, to disappear.
Through Quanta System lasers numerous masterpieces have been taken to new life. Excellence cleaning examples are the Brandburgh Door in Berlin, the Saint Stephen Cathedral in Wien, the Paper’s Door of the Ducal Palace in Venice and recently the stuccos of the Paolina Chapel, which is the private Chapel of the Pope.