Smart Coatings s.r.o., working in partnership with its sister company PRAGOTHERM, servis fasád s.r.o., was approached by representatives of the Government of the State of Karnataka to restore the monument to the 23rd Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore. The monument stands in the grounds of the Lalbagh Botanical Garden in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.

The memorial stands over 7 metres tall and its plinth measures 5.5 x 4.5 metres. Our task was to assess the condition of the monument and to propose a suitable technical solution. The statue was covered not only with algae and mould, but also with airborne dirt and residual paint.

We carried out remediation and subsequent cleaning of the statue. To treat the surfaces, we chose the product AlgaClean Stone, designed to protect natural stone against the growth of microorganisms. The entire project was closely monitored not only by the management of the botanical garden, but also by representatives of several Indian universities. The aim was to demonstrate the effect of our photocatalytic coatings, marketed there under the AlgaClean India brand, and to present nanotechnology as a suitable tool for protecting and conserving heritage monuments in India.