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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jan/08/dog-x-rays-art-history-and-a-never-say-never-attitude-the-surprising-toolbox-of-professional-conservators>
"When Cecilia Giménez noticed a flaking and faded painting on the wall of her
local church in 2012, her decision to pick up a paintbrush would result in one
of the world’s most infamous cases of art restoration.
The Spanish octogenarian’s Mr Bean-like job on the 20th century fresco, done
“spontaneously and with good intentions”, turned Jesus into something
resembling a “bloated hedgehog” and “a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in
an ill-fitting tunic”.
It’s little wonder that Giménez’s attempted revamp, which came to be known as
Monkey Christ, was doomed to failure; spend any time with professional
conservators and you soon realise how delicate and difficult art conservation
is.
In some instances of bungled restoration, big blunders can’t be salvaged. But
often, conservators can undo the damage, even when deterioration or changes are
extreme – as in the case of a Spanish statue that was comically botched in 2018
and then painstakingly fixed.
“We see all sorts of things with large tears and discoloured varnishes and
paint falling off [to the point] where you can hardly breathe next to a
painting,” says Cushla Hill, senior paintings conservator at the Grimwade
centre for cultural materials conservation at the University of Melbourne.
“We’ve had paintings from Warmun up in the Kimberley that have gone through a
serious flood … that we’ve been able to salvage.
“If something’s burnt beyond repair that’s probably a write-off, but never say
never,” Hill says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
