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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsanother famous painting ruined by restoration: Before and after (two attempts)
A botched restoration has left yet another famous painting unrecognizable.
This time, the restoration has left a painting of the Virgin Mary looking more like a kindergartener's lopsided self-portrait. The painting was a copy of "The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial," of the Virgin Mary was one of a famous series by the 17th-century Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The original version by Murillo is hanging in the Prado Museum in Madrid, and this copy is likely to be by Murillo as well, according to a statement from the Association of Conservators-Restorers (ACRE) of Spain. ACRE is an advocacy group that has publicized the botched artwork as part of an effort to change the rules around restoring paintings in the country.
According to a Spanish-language report in Europa Press, the private collector who owned the copy hired a furniture restorer to fix up the old painting. He returned the painting in an unrecognizable, smudged state. After the collector complained, the restorer made another attempt to fix the painting, and returned it looking even less like the original artwork.
https://www.livescience.com/murillo-painting-ruined-restoration.html
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madaboutharry
(40,212 posts)Restoring fine art is a skill that takes years of training.
It seems to me that someone willing to undertake a project like this without the educational background and acquired skill did so with malicious intent.
What a pity.
OneBro
(1,159 posts)What result didst thou consider?
Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)Marie Marie
(9,999 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)should go back cleaning the restrooms in the Prado.
Bradshaw3
(7,522 posts)of a decomposed body.
LeftInTX
(25,380 posts)Luciferous
(6,082 posts)csziggy
(34,136 posts)They would have fixed it perfectly!
EllieBC
(3,016 posts)This is awful.
Captain Zero
(6,811 posts)latest versions.
LenaBaby61
(6,974 posts)appalachiablue
(41,146 posts)a focus on Spanish Baroque art, this grotesque 'restoration' of a Murillo masterpiece copy pains me. There ought to be a law, crimes against artworks.
Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)appalachiablue
(41,146 posts)lpbk2713
(42,759 posts)That's what you get for getting something on Craigslist.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)That painting must have been worth many millions before the attempt.
Why not hire and pay a proven, professional painting and portrait restorer who had done verifiable work for museums?