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 Will neon light damage neighboring artwork?

Anna Carnes's profile image
Anna Carnes posted 05-07-2025 10:51 AM

Hi all,

My institution recently restored two neon light works from our permanent collection, and I am working on their placement alongside the rest of our collection. I'm trying to research neon light's impact on other materials, but the resources I have found only compare tungsten/incandescent, fluorescent, and LED lighting. Does anyone have resources or personal experience they can share? Just want to do my due diligence before these are installed. 

Thanks!

Anna Carnes

Gallery and Permanent Collection Manager

Agnes Scott College

Decatur, GA

Bruce MacLeish's profile image
Bruce MacLeish

Anna, it has bee quite a while since I looked at this subject, but fortunately, the Getty Conservation Institute has published a reference page on the Web. Essentially, the answer is that  neon lamps do emit ultraviolet energy (UV) but the intensity varies with the gas inside the tube, various other materials and coatings inside and outside the tube, and the age of the lamp. As far as I know, the only way to be sure about the strength of UV from the items in (or near) your collections would be to obtain a spectrometer; perhaps your college's science folks could help with that. Not every spectrometer will give you the information you are seeking, and I am unsure whether a UV meter would serve the purpose. It seems logical that it would, but I have never used one in an application like yours. If you can unravel this situation, I would hope that you might post your solutions on this listserve.

https://www.culturalheritage.org/docs/default-source/publications/annualmeeting/2023-posters/02-finding-neon_measuring-the-color-and-light-output-of-neon-tubes---giulia-rioda.pdf?sfvrsn=f6fb1020_6

Bruce MacLeish

Curator Emeritus, Newport Restoration Foundation