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I use a robot to restore Pompeii’s shattered frescoes

Cultural and heritage researcher Arianna Traviglia uses robotic technology to painstakingly reconstruct 2,000-year-old mural paintings in Pompeii.
  1. Stav Dimitropoulos

    1. Stav Dimitropoulos is a freelance writer in Athens, Greece.

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Arianna Traviglia examines the pigments of frescoes in the 'House of the Painters at Work', Pompeii.

Arianna Traviglia is a senior researcher at the Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, Italy. Credit: Francesco Rucci for Nature

As principal investigator of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology in Genoa, Italy, I promote the development of new technologies to preserve and protect important archaeological findings. Right now, I am in the field in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, where I am working with a robot to reconstruct Pompeii’s shattered frescoes. These are a type of mural painting on wet plaster. The project is called RePAIR.

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Nature 618, 206 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01741-3

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 05 June 2023: An earlier version of this story erroneously also credited Francesco Marinelli for the photography.

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