Cultural heritage materials and objects are constantly vulnerable to physical, chemical, and biological damage. Preserving these valuable works requires preventive and restorative efforts to protect this precious heritage. Traditional restoration techniques, primarily dependent on physical and chemical approaches, often is encountered limitations like temporary results, potential damage during the restoration process, health hazards due to toxic sub-stances, and risks to the environment. However, advances in the field of restoration have paved the way for the use of biological approaches. In these new methods, microorganisms are not only not considered as a threat to works of art, but are used as effective tools in the restoration process. This study employed a bibliometric analysis based on data from the Web of Science to investigate the structure, trends, and research networks in this field. The findings indicate an exponential growth of publications since 2015, concentrated in leading countries such as Italy, Spain, and China. The keyword analysis revealed three research main clusters, including bioconsolidation, biocleaning, and biopreservation in co-occurrence. This bibliometric analysis not only provides a comprehensive map of literatures, but also identifies future directions of researches, and emphasis the need to develop standardized frameworks for applying biotechnological methods in the conservation of cultural heritage.
Technical Note:
Review |
Subject:
Conservation Science Received: 2026/02/1 | Accepted: 2026/06/12