They should just trap Julian Baumgartner inside for a month, with nothing but water, food, and conservation-grade varnish and reversible pigments, and the whole place would look like new!
You might not be aware, but Baumgartner has a generally negative reputation in the conservator community. From what I understand as a non-expert, he's overly aggressive with his swabbing/varnishing and he's taken power tools directly to an artwork numerous times. The former isn't obvious to me either.
Unfortunately, we are unlikely ever to see any of Delecroix’s paintings as they were intended to be seen. Fading pigments and other factors make this true for every painting, but doubly true for Delecroix as he used a lot of new pigments that were very unstable.
There is the story of Degas standing weeping with sadness in front of The death of sardenopolis at the way its colors had faded over time.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 43.7 ms ] thread[1] https://api-www.louvre.fr/sites/default/files/styles/w1059_h...
(and https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prise_de_Constantinople_par_le... )
give a bit more context.
Stood out to me:
> 498 cm × 410 cm (196 in × 160 in)
There is the story of Degas standing weeping with sadness in front of The death of sardenopolis at the way its colors had faded over time.
- let's go and reclaim Jerusalem from those non-Christian infidels!
- Sure. We're gonna need a bigger boat. Let's ask the Venetians.
- Here are your ships, guys.
- Err, we have no money.
- Sigh. ok. Go and attack our rivals over there.
- The byzantines in Constantinople? They're Christian.
- You want something to do, or not?
- Fine. let's kill them all, boys.
Result: Constantinople is ravaged. Byzantine Empire fatally weakened. Ottomans take the city 200 years later.