Artworks restored while museum sits empty

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(11 Jan 2021) LEAD IN • Rome's museums have been closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. • But at Palazzo Barberini National Museum of Ancient Art, they are using the downtime to restore many of their precious artworks. • • STORY-LINE • In the restoration laboratory at Rome's Palazzo Barberini National Museum of Ancient Art, a restorer uses a cotton swab to carefully wipe grime and dirt off The Nursing Madonna, an oil painting by Bartolome Esteban Murillo completed around 1675. • So far, the restorers explain, the cleaning has revealed the original colours of the pastels used by the artist. • Here we are close to the original colour, certainly seeing it now without varnish, it doesn't seem like the right saturation so the colour seems a bit dull. When the restoration is complete the brilliance of the colour will be further revealed but this is the colour shade, explains Chiara Merucci, Head of Restoration Laboratory. • In another part of the laboratory, restorers in white jackets are repairing a split in the wood of an oil painting by 15th century Italian painter Girolamo Genga. Another is working on the elaborate gold frame. • The team of nine restorers, all in face masks as per COVID-19 safety procedures, are taking advantage of the museum closures in Italy to catch up on restoration work on the museum's masterpieces. • Italy's museums were closed for a total of nearly five months in 2020, losing hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions of euros. They have remained closed in January but museum officials are hoping to get the green light to open again by the end of the month. • The government of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has held off reopening museums, theatres, cinemas and gyms as it monitors the spread of coronavirus in Italy. To date, over 77,000 people have died in Italy from COVID-19 and there is considerable concern about a third wave hitting the country in the coming months. • A few floors above the restoration laboratory, museum director Flaminia Gennari Santori wanders down the empty hallways, glancing at the masterpieces on the walls. Works by Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Piero di Cosimo and Tintoretto hang here, but there are no visitors to see them. • The gentle, dark brown eyes of Raphael's famous Fornarina stare across the room at Hans Holbein's hulking Henry VIII. • Gennari Santori says the deserted rooms give her a feeling of melancholy . • We are here for the public, museums exist because there is a public, without a public they don't make sense, Santori explains, as she stands in front of Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes . • So, it's a great sense of melancholy. • But Santori says they have used the time wisely, restoring artworks, adjusting the display of their permanent collection, working on new exhibits and making new acquisitions. • But the museum has taken a huge financial hit. They lost 70 percent of their visitors in the past year with only 52,535 people visiting in 2020, and their ticket sale earnings dropped from 1 million Euros down to 500,000. They lost an equal amount by not being able to host events in the museum. • I can't wait until we reopen, Santori says, taking a quick glance at Caravaggio's Judith beheading Holofernes before heading down the long empty corridor back to her office to continue the preparations. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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