Arrrrgg! Gut wrenching. My grandfather's paintings are on display in art museums throughout Spain. Several in my personal collection were beginning to deteriorate like the one in the article. Solution? Clean and preserve so that qualified technicians supported by major institutions can attempt restoration in future years.
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.