The polyptych of Sant’Emidio from 1473 by Carlo Crivelli, kept in the Chapel of the Sacrament of the Cathedral of Sant’Emidio in Ascoli Piceno, really leaves you breathless. The request implemented by the curia, involving institutions and individuals for the sake of the heritage kept in the cathedral, saved this work painted in tempera and gold on wood. It all began when a benefactor from Ascoli Piceno, who decided to remain anonymous, wanted to restore a work in honor of the anniversary of his company’s founding. Crivelli’s altarpiece was not on the list of urgencies as, after the 2016 earthquake, priority interventions focused on frescoes and structural elements but the interest of the patron has allowed to discover an inconspicuous problem that was affecting the work, the isoptera. Many analyzes by experts were done and in February 2020 it was decided to proceed with a technique, anoxia, to eliminate termites. This process consists of placing the work inside a sealed envelope where 0.25% residual oxygen is reached, with a temperature of 18-20 ° C at 50% humidity, for a period of approx. 24 days; all managed by a machine connected to the bag. This procedure is the safest way to clean up the shovel without invasive interventions. However, no one could predict what would happen in the world with the spread of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown. The work remained there, “breathless”, waiting for the country to restart and hoping that the pandemic emergency would not undermine the resources for this intervention.