Art restoration - good, bad, and ugly

Cutting edge restoration of a Monet ......

http://gizmodo.com/how-a-12-million-monet-was-repaired-after-some-idiot-p-1681345808



Not so cutting edge .......

http://www.wsj.com/articles/beard-of-egypts-king-tut-hastily-glued-back-on-with-epoxy-1421923309



Just downright ugly .....

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/w...on-of-ecce-homo-fresco-shocks-spain.html?_r=0

 

Looks like the Tut link to the Wall Street Journal article may require a log-in. Here is a link to a different similar story that should be free to read ......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/21/king-tuts-mask-damaged_n_6520910.html

 

Hi Brad,
Due to all the publicity the Jesus is being restored correctly. I am still in shock over Tut's beard.
greg

 

Like haven't they heard of duct tape?!

 

I know that the Jesus one is old news but threw it in so that I could do the good, bad, & ugly thing .....

The Tut "restoration" is shocking. Of all things to botch. It is not like it would go unnoticed.

 

Here's a Van Dyke featured on the "Fake or Fortune" show (more than 1000 hrs spent on the restoration):

Before:


After:


http://arthistorynews.com/articles/1691_Before_n_After

 

Here's a note on Velasquez’s “The Toilet of Venus” (“The Rokeby Venus”) that was attacked and slashed by a suffragette in 1914.

http://albertis-window.com/2013/06/the-slashing-of-velasquezs-the-rokeby-venus/

 

The Van Dyck painting... that is really amazingly different. I wonder how many more almost complete overpaintings have yet to be discovered.

I found this article called "The Top 10 Crimes Against Art in 2014." Not exactly restorations, but these are subjects of future restorations. Most of these artworks were damaged as acts of protest, but some were accidents.
http://www.artslant.com/ny/articles/show/41613

 

Interesting thread, thanks for posting this! An amazing amount of work to restore the Monet, and every step is reversible - glad they didn't use glue.

 

Hi cxgirl,
Every step reversible. That is why I don't use any of these new fangled glues when I fix things. The worst I have seen was back in the 1930s when cellophane tape came out. My cousin was collecting stamps and instead of using hinges he pasted them down with a piece of tape. I have some of those stamps which were very valuble then and even more so now. The tape has fallen off but the sticky nasty glue has seeped through the entire stamp and made it transparent and useless.
greg

 

The worst art restoration mistakes of all time (according to this blog, anyway):

http://io9.com/5938377/the-worst-art-restoration-mistakes-of-all-time

 

Sistine Chapel restoration was controversial:

http://apecsec.org/sistine-chapel-restoration-controversy/

 

Cool thread!

 

Looks like they have brought in a German expert on the Tut mask for consultation. Sounds like they are confident that the epoxy can be removed without further damage. I would imagine that the mask being made of gold will make this easier than if it were some other material.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/01/24/egypt-king-tutankhamen-mask/22274967/

 

Fig,

Thanks for the link to the blog about worst restorations. This line cracked me up.......

"The penis has had a tough time in art, historically, what with being knocked off statues, over-painted with clothes, and generally hidden from view, and that trend doesn't seem to be abating."

 

This was made for the C.M.C , on order , by Tony Hunt.
When the Museum received it , they noticed an addition.
Tony would not remove it , so to the best of my knowledge it's stayed in the basement....and was never shown publicly !

 

So sad about the Sufi shrine being bulldozed by ISIS and artifacts being sold on the black market.

My Persian friend told me about the Arab and other invaders who destroyed their libraries. So sad that history can be destroyed.

 

Persia hasn't existed for a long,,,long time.
Just how old are you anyways ??

 

KOMOKWA! Persian=Iranian. Haven't you watched the Shahs of Sunset????