Experiments have been carried out under controlled laboratory conditions to investigate the feasibility of removing air pollutants from museum display cases using sorbents. Tests were carried out in the active and passive modes at ambient T and 55 ± 55 RF, with pollutant concentrations of 60-300 (ozone), 75-200 (NO2), 120-180 (SO2), 160-1200 (HCHO) and 60-260 nL/L(H2S) in purified air. In the active mode, many sorbents met or exceeded our target performance, i.e. these sorbents were capable of removing an amount of pollutant equivalent to 20 nL/L of pollutant for one year of continuous use by passing air at 0.1 L/min through 200 g of sorbent. Suitable sorbents included activated carbon. Chromosorb 102, and most of the chemicals the authors selected for this study. Sorbents commonly used in museums and that failed to remove one or more air pollutants under the conditions of our study included silica gel. Plurafil, and molecular sieves 13X. Activated carbon met our target performance for all five pollutants tests. in the passive mode, pollutant removal by sorbents and by loss to the display case walls obeyed firdt order kinetics. The corresponding passive removal rate constants and pollutant half-lives were determined. Removal rate constants ranged from 0.5 to 3x10-2 min-1, and for carbon were in the following sequence: O3 greater thanSO2greater thanH2Sgreater thanNO2greater thanHCHO. Pollutant removal rates increased with increasing sorbent area. Among mitigation measures aimed at minimizing museum collections damage from air pollutants, none appears to be more cost-effective or easier to implement than the use of sorbents. Specific applications are briefly discussed.