Elderly woman destroys 19th-century fresco with DIY restoration

The Telegraph ^ | August 22, 2012 | Amy Willis

[beaversmom]

Three separate photographs of

[Ezekiel]

I think I feel a song coming on!

[Yardstick]

Here’s a theory. She was just going to give it a quick scrub to clean it and maybe dab a little paint onto the spots where the paint had flaked away. Problem is, when she scrubbed it, a whole bunch more paint flaked off, as seen in the second pic. She should have stopped there, but instead she doubled down. She figured she could just do a little more touching up than she had originally planned and maybe nobody would notice. But from there somehow things snowballed and she wound up with pic 3. At that point she knew she had officially blown it so she punted and asked for help.

[onyx]

Free Republic.

[a fool in paradise]

Professionals I am sure can repaint the piece, but its going to be costly. At this point its basically going to be a replication when its done.

Like this was?

[a fool in paradise]

I’m assuming this is satire. Either that or it was malice. Or the lady is insane, literally. Seriously. Look at it.

80-something years old. Claude Monet had failing eyesight too.

[a fool in paradise]

Nice work, Granma.

Granma Moses had nothing on her:

[a fool in paradise]

The amateur restorer said she had undertaken the project "with good intentions" but, as culture councillor Juan Maria de Ojeda said, "she had gotten out of hand".

I thought... dreamt... remembered... how easy it is for a painter to lose a painting. He paints and paints, works on a canvas for months, and then, one day, he loses it. Loses the structure, loses the sense of it. You lose the painting. I remembered asking my kids' second-grade teacher: "Why are all your students geniuses?" Look at the first grade - blotches of green and black. The third grade - camouflage. But your grade, the second grade... Matisses, every one. You've made my child a Matisse. Let me study with you. Let me into the second grade. What is your secret?

"I don't have any secret. I just know when to take their drawings away from them."

- Six Degrees of Separation

[a fool in paradise]

Looks a little like Superman.

[Daffynition]

ROFLOL....smooth!

[Daffynition]

[a fool in paradise]

[a fool in paradise]

[longtermmemmory]

This is Art without Obama:

This is Art with Obama change.

any questions?

[beaversmom]

The additional jelly roll on the bottom is a nice touch...

I enjoyed that too.

[martin_fierro]

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[Daffynition]

Heh.

[mware]

According to the Daily Mail today, a relative of the artist had just commissioned someone to restore the painting.

Too bad they did not have the painting in a place where it would not be tampered with.

I never got to Italy to see The Piety, before that guy took a hammer to it, but when I was a kid and we went to the World's Fair in NY, they were still taking The Piety out of its crate, but the Cardinal of NY did not want the people to miss the chance to see it. I got to see it when it was still being unpacked.

[Ezekiel]

That reminds me of an episode of the Rockford Files. The street artist tells Rockford, “I paint what I feel”. Rockford replies, “You must not feel well”.

[mware]

Did you ever see the episode from the Brit's version of Antique Roadshow?

Some guy had this beautiful 18th century furniture, with only one blemish. His son had taken a permanent magic marker to it.

Inside one of the drawers was a letter the son had written to his father (actually 100 lines of "I am sorry for writing on the furniture)

The person who was evaluating the price of the piece was delighted with the letter, and told him to always keep the lines with the piece.

[freedomlover]

You posted

ROFLOL

I've seen better Jesuses on a piece of toast! Fresco Fiasco