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	PROMET

PROMET is a three-year European 6th Framework funded project, priority INCO, with 21 partners from 11 countries of the Mediterranean basin—Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey and including the Czech Republic. PROMET began in November 2004 with a goal of ensuring the survival of the outstanding metals collections throughout the Mediterranean region, encompassing more than 5000 years from 2800 BC onwards. Jointly, the partners of PROMET are developing new strategies to monitor the corrosion of metal objects using state-of-the-art portable techniques Laser- induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and micro-X-ray Fluorescence (μ-XRF). Scientific studies are providing other and newer ways to find out information about these unique collections from the past. At the same time, conservation scientists are developing and testing new materials, corrosion inhibitors, coatings, and PVD and PECVD barrier films as alternative ways to better protect metals collections—ways that are safer, more effective, reversible, and longer-lasting. The challenge for museums The primary obstacle that museums around the Mediterranean Basin face when trying to preserve their metals collections comes from our atmosphere—the high relative humidity of the Mediterranean and the many aggressive agents that cause metal degradation, such as chloride salts. Furthermore, these conditions may vary and individual museums must tailor their conservation strategies to their own situations. To make it even more challenging for museums, the vast number of artifacts in their metals collections and the high cost of repeated maintenance makes it impossible to simply place their collections in environmentally controlled areas or treat them regularly with protective coatings. The costs are simply prohibitive. Furthermore, many artifacts are contaminated with soluble salts, such as chlorides, and can only be saved by a lengthy and expensive process that involves a thorough analysis, documentation, stabilization treatment, and finally choosing a suitable protection system such as with a corrosion inhibitor and/or a coating. The aim of our conservation strategy is to save the metal artefacts The only way to establish and to promote a proper conservation strategy for the Mediterranean region is to develop prototype portable monitoring systems and protection methods, to identify each specific degradation factor for the many museum collections of precious metals, iron and copper alloys, and then carry out the preservation.