Non-destructive subsurface imaging methods based on the absorption or scattering of photons
or neutrons are becoming increasingly popular in cultural asset conservation. However, these
techniques are limited by physical and practical issues: their penetration depth may be insufficient
for large items, and they usually necessitate transferring the objects of interest to specialised
laboratories. The latter issue is recently being addressed by the development of portable sources,
but artificial radiation can be harmful and is thus subjected to strict regulation. Muons are
elementary particles that are abundantly and freely created in the atmosphere by cosmic-ray
interactions. Their absorption and scattering in matter are respectively dependent on the density
and elemental composition of the substance they traverse, suggesting that they could be used
for subsurface remote imaging. This novel technique, dubbed "muography," has been used in
applications ranging from geophysics to archaeology, but has remained largely unexplored for a
wide range of cultural heritage objects that are small by muography standards but whose size
and density are too large for conventional imaging methods. This document outlines the general
arguments and some early simulation studies that aim at exploring the low-size limit of muography
and its relevance for cultural heritage preservation.