Why inflict damage now? Why not just keep the Shroud in a stable, ideal humidity and temperature, perhaps without oxygen, so as to preserve it as intact as possible for future generations? Isn't that what we would have liked previous generations to have done for our sake?
That certainly is a good suggestion. The 1978 STURP team's protocols held as their FIRST priority to do no damage. They were appalled when they found that the Italians (Who had first crack at it for 24 hours before the STURP people) had left bright spotlights shining on the Shroud while the Italians had dinner... a two to three hour affair. They were also appalled to find that the custodians of the Shroud used steel thumbtacks in the humid Torino atmosphere, to hold the Shroud to a simple plywood backing and frame for the 1978 exhibition. Those thumbtacks left RUST RINGS in the shroud material!
The STURP team had made a $100,000 stainless steel (covered with inert material) rotating table to support the Shroud during examination. The Shroud would be held on the table with protected magnets. THUMBTACKS!...
A couple of years ago, in a secret "restoration", all of the charred areas were cut away because SOMEONE told them that the fire of 1532 might still be burning, turning more of the shroud to char through "autocatilytic decomposition". Scientists, including all of the STURP team were appalled, again, at the destructive "conservation" undertaken under non-peer reviewed conditions. This "restoration" and "cleaning" destroyed all data that could have been gleaned from the Shroud by examining contamination in Situ.
Just recently, before the "restoration", it was determined that stone dust on the back of the dorsal image's obverse was Travertine Agagonite... a form of limestone that is (so far as is known) found only in the rocks and caves outside of Jerusalem... yet ALL of that was vacuumed away and placed in little jars. NO one can compare image patterns with Aragonite concentrations to see if the Aragonite concentration is stronger where the body would have pressed the Shroud into the limestone of the rock shelf in a tomb... because it has been removed.
Today, the Shroud is stored in a hermetically sealed case designed to allow the Shroud to lay flat instead of being folded or rolled as past practice. The Shroud itself is visible through laminated bullet proof glass. The pressure controlled (with battery backed-up bellows) case is filled with inert Argon (95.5%) and Oxygen (.5%) to prevent as much chemical change as possible. It is kept in a light controlled environment and will only be displayed again under low-light conditions.
Next time, I hope the custodians of the Shroud will ASK some scientists before they send it out to be dry cleaned...
I know a priest who was custodian for about 2 years some time back. I wonder if he knows about these things?