Methodology and application of gc-ms to study altered organic binding media from objects of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Within the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM), Vienna, three off-line GC-MS analytical procedures for the identification of natural organic media have been refined, tested, and validated on a series of reference materials (partly artificially aged) to apply this knowledge for investigations of original, historic works of art from the museum's collections. At first, a set of artificially aged mockups has been prepared and a reference database has been built up for the identification of drying oils, resins, waxes, proteins and polysaccharides. Some interesting observations concerning the alteration of the composition of these organic media during different ageing steps are presented in the following text. In addition, some selected examples for the application of the refined techniques for the analysis of real samples from various museum objects are shown.