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Conservation of Cultural Heritage covers the methods and practices needed for future museum professionals who will be working in various capacities with museum collections and artifacts. It also assists current professionals in understanding the complex decision-making processes that face conservators on a daily basis. The uniqueness of this book lies in correlating the aspects of material science and the behaviour of artifacts in a museum environment. It will be of special benefit to museum professionals not trained in conservation. Covering a broad range of topics that are key to sound conservation in the museum, Conservation of Cultural Heritage is an important tool for students and professionals alike in ensuring that best practice is followed in the preservation of important collections.

Conservation of Cultural Heritage covers the methods and practices needed for future museum professionals who will be working in various capacities with museum collections and artifacts. It also assists current professionals in understanding the complex decision making processes that faces conservators on a daily basis. Covering a broad range of topics that are key to sound conservation in the museum, this volume is an important tool for students and professional alike in ensuring that best practice is followed in the preservation of important collections.

Biodeterioration of cultural materials is one of the most complex types of deteriorations that cultural materials are subjected to mainly, because it involves living organisms and synergy of many factors. There are different forms of biodeterioration, stains of substrate caused by pigmented fungi is one of them. Multitude of events occurs at interfaces between substrate and fungi, from the moment of spores' first contact with surfaces, next fugal growth and their responses to the environment. Multiscale and multisensory analysis of interfaces between black pigmented fungi and paper substrate was the subject of these theses. Two types of black fungal pigmentations were analyzed; one that occurred on the original artworks the other one was induced in biosymulation on known papers in controlled environment. Paper characteristics, such as surface topography and structure, morphology of fungi and patterns of their pigmented bio-mass deposition as well as fungal growth were examined with an array of analytical instruments and methods: transmitted light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy in variable pressure, confocal laser scanning microscopy, white light confocal profilometer and X-ray microtomography. The ultimate goal was to develop a preservation strategy for biodeteriorated cultural heritage material; therefore the choice of the analytical methods and instruments was dictated by real-life protocols that limit sampling of cultural materials. This works is the first attempt towards a better understanding of interfacial forces in fungal stains on paper.