"My mother had a very difficult problem to solve and I found a paper about bacteria used to clean frescoes in Italy," Bosch, 42, said.
"In the past, we used to work in a horrible manual way, with warm water and sponges that took hours and damaged the painting," said Roig, now 75, whose father and grandfather along with other relatives also worked in art conservation.
The microbiologist trains bacteria by feeding them samples of the glue which was made from animal collagen. The bacteria then naturally produce enzymes to degrade the glue.
The family team then mixes the bacteria with a natural algae-based gel and spread it on the paintings - which were taken from the walls in the 1960s, then nailed back on, still covered in glue.
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