About us

Factum Arte is an independent workshop based in Madrid working both with contemporary artists and on the production of facsimiles that can be used for conservation purposes. Factum Arte currently has three studios in Madrid, one in London and one in San Francisco.

For over 6 years Factum Arte has carried out large scale projects and has gained a reputation for the uncompromising nature of its work and its obsessive commitment to pushing the boundries that usually separate technology and craft skills. During this time it has developed hardware and software applications specifically for use in the documentation of cultural heritage. The successful innovations we have carried out or commissioned include: the development of the Seti Laser Scanner and the writing of a 3D retouching software for use in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, the development of a flatbed scanning system to record colour used on Veronese’s Wedding at Cana, a flat bed digital printer that can repeatedly overprint in perfect registration, a 3D printer that prints in cement from STL files and the development of a system to record fragile manuscripts and books when they are open at an angle of 90 degrees or less (used in the Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid) to record El Beato Primero). During each project the theoretical and practical problems are analysed and the practical solutions are applied. In all of this work, the digital information has been used for documentation, monitoring and the production of 2 and 3D facsimiles, which retain the surface complexity and characteristics of the original.

The role of facsimiles and issues of objectivity are central to all the work we undertake. The aim of most work carried out in Factum Arte’s workshops is to demonstrate how new technologies can assume a central role in the preventative conservation of heritage sites and can change attitudes towards the use of facsimiles (both virtual and physical) in the management and protection of cultural heritage.

The success of the facsimiles is dependent on the resolution at which they are carried out and the attention to surface detail. If the facsimile is going to be convincing, it requires data that is accurate on enough levels (shape, angularity, colour, superficial characteristics, materials etc) and that is sufficiently objective to be meaningful to conservators, academics and an interested public.