The project is a collaboration between Kraków’s Economic University, the University of Ljubljana, the National Museum in Kraków and the National Museum of Slovenia.
In January, scientists plan to meet with museum experts and historians to discuss the details of the initiative, the Polish state news reported.
The Polish team, led by the Kraków Economic University's Tomasz Sawoszczuk, has received around PLN 2.5 million (EUR 544,000) in funding for the project from the country’s National Science Centre.
“At the moment, we are preparing to buy specialist machinery for the examination of scents,” Sawoszczuk told PAP, adding that the equipment would cost over PLN 1.2 million (EUR 261,000).
He explained that the planned new library would not be a brick-and-mortar facility, but "an online compilation of recipes for the recreation of the scents of museum pieces.”
The recipes and descriptions of smells will also be available in paper format, he said.
The project aims to document the scents of various relics from different eras, with Poland’s contribution set to include Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Lady with an Ermine, a national treasure housed at the National Museum in Kraków, scientists told PAP.
The initiative could in the future be extended to include other countries and benefit blind and visually impaired art lovers, according to the scientists behind the project.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP