Urushi lacquer in three Asian artifacts from MAO: comparison between non-invasive and microinvasive analytical techniques

Lacquerwares stand as some of the most prized Asian artworks, forming a significant part of museum collections globally. Their conservation, however, presents considerable challenges due to the intricate nature of the objects themselves and the environmental conditions of their storage. Assessing the composition and current state of these artifacts represents a main goal for designing suitable conserva-tion approaches, and reaching this goal, as much as possible, with non-invasive protocols is highly desirable. This study presents an analytical investigation on three Asian lacquer artifacts from the Mu-seum of Oriental Art in Venice, combining non-invasive in situ techniques—including optical micros-copy, FORS, and ER-FTIR—with micro-invasive methods i.e., micro-FTIR, micro-Raman spectros-copy, SEM-EDS, and Py-GC-MS carried out on naturally detached fragments. This comprehensive approach successfully identified the artistic techniques employed, the type of Asian lacquer used -urushi, the pigments, and other components introduced during production, or later for restoration pur-poses. The integration of non-invasive and microinvasive analyses enabled a critical evaluation of the proposed characterization protocol, highlighting its strengths and limitations relative to established mi-croinvasive approaches.