Art enthusiasts leave chemical traces of gallery visits on artwork

The priceless, porous artwork that adorns the walls of a US university art gallery probably hosts a surprising proportion of the chemicals that have been breathed and sweated out by its visitors, a month-long field study has found.

University of Colorado Boulder chemists spent four weeks monitoring the air inside a gallery at their university’s new art museum, looking at levels of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide and other trace gases known to be given off by humans. The proportions emitted by a typical person has been determined by previous studies, here the team wanted to catalogue where these chemicals go – their fate.