Art Restorers: Advance Storm Warning Advisory

As in any area of human kind, there tends to be conflicts of one sort or another. And so in the art world, as one might assume, there exists the same human frailties. In an article entitled Question: “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?” Answer: Those Green With Envy by Joan Altabe, the reader is enlightened as to the sticky situations that can exist in some art museums today, especially in the realm of art restoration.

Joan begins by relating an incident that originated in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum in 1986. It seems that an unknown painter entered the museum and slashed a painting by well-known abstract artist, Barnett Newman. Damaging it to a point that no one in the art conservation community believed it could be restored. The painting was estimated to be worth over one million dollars. Mr. Newman’s widow recommended a restorer that her deceased husband had a great deal of respect for and even before his death remarked that he had the expertise to conserve his work.  Read more

« Previous Page