ABSTRACT
The identification of proteinaceous materials in cultural goods provides very valuable information such as the artistic technique, the presence of previous interventions, the influences from other artistic movements as well as the use or function of a specific archaeological vessel, etc. In order to clarify the source of proteins presented in cultural goods, we propose a proteomic approach to identify protein materials at low levels. We focused on the critical step of the preparation of samples and the analysis by a HPLC/DAD/MS/MS with tandem Quadrupole Time-Of-Flight detector (Q-TOF) which allows the accurate identification of the peptides and its proteinaceous natural source. The objective of the present work is to show the first benefits and results in the identification of proteinaceous materials, inter alia, egg yolk, milk, animal soft tissues or silk, in model and real samples from artworks.
