Journal of Cultural Heritage 13 (2012) 7–21 Original article Assessment of seismic vulnerability of art objects: The “Galleria dei Prigioni” sculptures at the Accademia Gallery in Florence Luisa Berto a , Tommaso Favaretto a , Anna Saetta a,∗ , Fabrizio Antonelli b , Lorenzo Lazzarini b a Department IUAV of Research, University IUAV of Venice, Dorsoduro 2206, Venice, 30123 Italy b LAMA Laboratory, University IUAV of Venice, San Polo 2468, Venice, 30125 Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 24 February 2011 Accepted 23 June 2011 Available online 10 August 2011 Keywords: Cultural heritage Michelangelo’s sculptures Seismic assessment Guidelines Carrara marble a b s t r a c t The seismic assessment of art objects requires a multidisciplinary approach and the definition of a specific methodology for evaluating the level of safety and the possible interventions necessary for seismic risk prevention, finding a compromise between safety and conservation. This paper describes a first step in this direction, in which the different aspects of the procedure, from knowledge path of the art object to the structural analysis, were studied in the six Michelangelo’s statues located in the “Galleria dei Prigioni” (Slaves’ Gallery) at the Accademia Gallery of Florence. We showed that the general principles and criteria expressed in the “Italian Guidelines for evaluation and mitigation of seismic-risk to cultural heritage”, which are specifically devoted to masonry constructions, could be profitably extended to other artworks, like statues, starting from historical research, geometrical survey and material characterization, up to the developing of specific methods of analysis. This research could be the base for future studies to be performed concerning the prevention of seismic damage of art objects, including both bare minimum interventions and specific devices, such as isolation systems. © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Research aims The aim of the research was to perform a study of seismic assessment of art objects on display in museums. In particular, a multidisciplinary methodology was proposed and the six sculp- tures located in the “Galleria dei Prigioni” (Slaves’ Gallery) at the Accademia Gallery of Florence were analysed. We hypothesized that the general principles and criteria expressed in the “Italian Guidelines for evaluation and mitigation of seismic-risk to cultural her- itage” (DPCM2007, [1]), which are specifically devoted to masonry constructions, could be extended to other cultural objects, like stat- ues. In order to develop this methodology aimed to evaluate the seismic safety level of the art objects, we took the following steps: • the knowledge path, which involves historical research, geomet- rical survey and material characterization; • the characterization of the seismic action of the site; • the development of specific methods of analysis, according to the characteristics of the objects and to the required level of accuracy. This research could be the base for future studies to be per- formed concerning the prevention of seismic damage of art objects, ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 049 827 5622; fax: +39 049 827 5604. E-mail address: saetta@iuav.it (A. Saetta). including both bare minimum interventions and specific devices, such as isolation systems. 2. Introduction The protection of museum collections against seismic hazard is increasingly gaining the interest of governments and scientists, as their damage could irreparably affect the cultural heritage. Rel- evant experience in studying and promoting seismic mitigation programs for museum collections has been developed for exam- ple at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California [2]. Important efforts to protect art objects have also been carried out in some countries of the Mediterranean area, which is a zone prone to earthquakes and famous for its artistic heritage, such as Greece [3,4], Turkey [5,6] and Italy [7,8]). Dealing with this issue requires a multidisciplinary approach in order to formulate a global judgement on the level of risk and to evaluate effective protection strategies, trying to find a compromise between the requisite for safety and the principles of conservation. An essential step in the assessment of the vulnerability of art objects is to control their global stability condition. To this aim different methods may be applied within the framework of rigid block mechanics, such as dynamic analysis with the integration of the non linear equations of motion [9], or approximated rela- tionships which control sliding and rocking by the seismic Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) and the overturning by the Peak Ground Velocity (PGV) [10,11]. 1296-2074/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2011.06.005