Art after 1940 has benefitted from new materials, especially acrylic paint, based on plastics that are now found to be more fragile and chemically unstable than classical materials.
In response, conservation scientists are looking toward nanotechnology, as the Scientific American explains:
In a project called Nanorestart (the idea is to use nanomatierials to restore art) a consortium of 27 museums, universities, and chemical companies—financially supported by the European Union—began to tackle four tasks in 2015. The first goal is cleaning contemporary art surfaces. Second is stabilizing canvases and painted layers. Third is removing unwanted modern materials. And fourth is figuring ways to enhance protection of the artworks. With novel materials that function at the nanoscale, workers hope to penetrate the polymer networks that underlie artworks, remove the blemishes of degradation, and stabilize the remaining structures.
When Art Falls Apart (Scientific American)
