An unusual niche for an opportunistic fungus

An acrylic on canvas painting from the collection of the Institute of Puerto Rico Culture was found to be stained with light brown spots. Under ultraviolet light it was evident that these spots covered the entire painting. Scotch tape samples from different areas of the painting were taken. In almost all of these samples, septated hyphae were observed to surround the canvas fibers and in most of them, spiny or rough-surfaced conidia were also observed. A sample from the canvas which was incubated over a Sabourand agar plate yielded a fungus very similar to the one observed in the tape samples after subculturing in potato dextrose agar. Slide cultures and culture characteristics provided evidence that this fungus was a species of Scopulariopsis. This fungus has been implicated in human disease and in this case, it was the cause of the deterioration of the painting.