The RePAIR project in Pompeii has concluded after nearly four years of research, marking a major achievement for Italian innovation in the field of cultural heritage conservation. Launched in September 2021, the project was conceived, coordinated, and largely developed in Italy, bringing together Italian archaeologists, conservators, engineers, and university researchers with the goal of solving one of archaeology’s most demanding problems – the reconstruction of fragmented ancient frescoes.
Rooted in Italy’s long tradition of archaeological research, RePAIR focused on frescoes from Pompeii that were shattered by the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, further damaged during World War II, and affected by later collapses. Thousands of fragments, many measuring only a few centimeters, had remained stored for decades due to the extreme difficulty of manual reassembly.
