Perpustakaan Digital ITB

In 2015, a Taiwanese boy became an Internet sensation when he t ripped, punching a hole through a seventeenth century painting valued a t $1.5 million. 1 The private owner of the Paolo Porpora carried an insurance pol icy on the painting, and conservationists have already begun restorations. 2 This story made headlines because one small misstep permanently ruined a g reat work of art. However, the art world faces another, quieter misstep that could be inflicting greater damage on pieces of art: restoring them. Whe n the boy punched a hole in the painting, the global community was shocke d. However, it is hardly common knowledge that the Louvre’s director of res toration recently resigned after a restor ation of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne removed a portion of da Vinci’s original paint and permanently altered the features of the Virgin’s face. 3 Even after ruining one da Vinci painting, the Louvre proceeded with plans to restore a nother da Vinci masterpiece—his painting of John the Baptist. 4 One art history expert publicly condemned the restoration as unnecessary and called the recent phenomenon of restoring da Vinci’s great works as a “contagious mania.” 5