Edvard Munch’s The Scream has been rarely exhibited and instead placed in storage to preserve the famed painting. Over the years, the painting has been slowly degrading, the yellow pigments in the painting turning off-white and some parts of the painting are flaking. Thanks to new research, the painting can be restored and conserved. The study, published in Science Advances discovered that the culprit for the painting’s slow decay is moisture. With the cause known, threat conservationists at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, can do their best to preserve the painting.
image via CNN
I like that no matter how hard we try, when we restore something, it becomes a changed object even if it appears to be the same thing.
The painting of Jesus in a Spanish church that was damaged by an enthusiastic parishioner is a favorite of mine. Not because I think that anyone should be able to "restore" an artwork whenever they want. I think the lady who did that is a criminal and should face whatever local justice applies. But I like it anyway.