T-rex buffs take note. The Smithsonian Institution will soon release a scan of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that can be printed in 3D at home. The Smithsonian is among museums around the world that are using 3D scanning and printing to help restore and preserve collections and make art and artifacts more accessible.
In July, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will display 19th century sculptor Hiram Powers' Greek Slave along with a video of how it was 3D scanned. Visitors will be able to download the image and make copies from home on 3D printers. "In a way, it's democratising the collection," said Karen Lemmey, curator of sculpture at the museum in Washington.
Galleries are using the imaging to collect data on objects that can later be used to construct and print digital three-dimensional models. While less than 1 per cent of all art globally has been scanned, the process is gaining traction, according to scanning software maker Autodesk Inc. And while the quality of replicas is improving, it's not to the degree where there's concern about forgeries, experts agree.
The destruction of art in war-torn regions and vandalism in general may spur even more museums to use 3D imaging. In February, Islamic militants demolished ancient sculptures and artifacts at a museum in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Fourteen years ago, the Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan, two giant sixth-century statues carved into a cliff in Afghanistan. Even in the Netherlands, bronze sculptures are being stolen from city squares and sold for scrap, said Tonny Beentjes, a member of the conservation faculty at the University of Amsterdam. "3D scanning is a preventative measure," Beentjes said. "If we take a record now, at least we have something to go back to."
So far, the technology isn't stirring anxiety about misuse in the art world. "It would be much easier to fake money than to fake art," said Adam Lowe, founder of digital art preservation company Factum Arte. "It's much more difficult to fake a painting with 3D printing technology than to do it by hand" with a paintbrush, he said.
While non-experts might be hoodwinked by a fake, anyone with knowledge of oil painting would quickly know the difference, said Tim Zaman, a researcher at Delft University of Technology, who with Canon Inc. subsidiary Oce has created copies of paintings by van Gogh and Rembrandt. 3D-printed paintings lack the opacity and reflection of oils, which are covered with lacquer, Zaman said. Sculpture copies might have different colours and textures than the original because of the limited materials available for printers.
Imaging has opened a world of possibilities for restorers. Beentjes, at the University of Amsterdam, used a scan to rebuild a leg on a vandalised Rodin sculpture. He also fixed a Roman mask missing a left cheek and ear by scanning the right side of the face and mirror-imaging it. Factum Arte, based in Madrid, is using 3D scanning techniques to recreate an altarpiece from Bologna, Italy. It was divided and sold in the 1700s, and its 16 painted panels are now at nine different museums in Europe and the US. "We are gradually recording all of them to be able to reconstruct the altarpiece," said Lowe, whose team also built a replica of Tutankhamun's tomb that opened to the public last year in Luxor, Egypt.
San Diego-based artist Cosmo Wenman scanned the armless Venus de Milo, a star attraction at the Louvre in Paris, and is in the process of 3D printing a replica - with appendages attached - for a client.
Bloomberg
