LOG INSIGN UP Powered by KINJA Follow Gizmodo RELATED BLOGS Sploid Paleofuture Indefinitely Wild Field Guide Reframe Factually LEG GODT Gizmodo en Español BLOGS YOU MAY LIKE Deadspin Gawker Gizmodo io9 Jalopnik Jezebel Kotaku Lifehacker Sploid USERNAME NOTIFICATIONS Compose post Account Settings Private view Logout MY BLOGS  Compose post Account Settings Private view Logout MY BLOGS How a $12 Million Monet Was Repaired After Some Idiot Punched It 36,89512  Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan ProfileFollow  Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Filed to: ART MONET PUNCHED PAINTING ART CONSERVATION ART RESTORATION Yesterday 10:40am Share to Kinja Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink  Almost three years ago, an unhinged Irish gentleman named Andrew Shannon punched a 141-year-old Monet painting hanging in Ireland's National Gallery. Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat was ruined—or so it seemed. The painting had three jagged rips down its center, twisted outward from where Shannon's fist hit the canvas. Shannon, for his part, is now serving a five-year sentence for his crime, which Metro UK explained as "an attempt to 'get back at the state.'" But the painstaking restoration has taken almost as long as his prison sentence.  While it seems beyond repair in the image above, conservators at the National Gallery posted a detailed account of what sounds a lot like a harrowing surgery on its website. First, they made sure that they had all the pieces. This is a 130-year-old painting, and when it was punched, says the gallery, "tiny fragments of paint and ground came loose and were deposited on the painting's surface or on the ground nearby." They had to carefully pick up and classify all these crumbs and flakes of paint so they could be restored.  Even then, some of the pieces are too small to figure out where they belong. "Seven percent of the fragments lost during the damage were so tiny that even with a powerful microscope, it was impossible to relocate them back into the painting," says the gallery. They still played a useful role in the restoration though; the lab was able to chemically analyze them to figure out the makeup of the paint Monet used. Knowing more about the provenance of the paint, it was time to get started. Repairing the painting would require it to be turned upside down—it was placed on a "padded cushion"—and to "stabilize" it, the team covered the painted side with "a low-concentration of water-based, animal glue." The idea was to make the paint itself stronger while so much was happening on the other side of the canvas.  Then came the real work: With the aid of a high-powered microscope and appropriately small tools, the tear edges were carefully aligned thread-by-thread. Re-joining of the realigned, broken canvas fibres involved applying a specially formulated adhesive to achieve a strong but reversible bond between the thread ends. This adhesive material has been used and developed by painting conservators in Germany over the past 40 years. Examples shown here include small steel surgical tools for working on tiny areas using a microscope; mini hot spatula for applying controlled and localised heat to the painting; warming plate and glass containers for keeping adhesive at a consistent temperature. Hydrated collagen adhesive was made in-studio. If it sounds like surgery, that's because it is. The aging, fragile threads are almost like blood vessels that need to be carefully and gently tied off or rejoined. Any mistakes, and the entire painting could have been lost. But there was still a huge scar down the middle of the painting. So, like piecing together a puzzle, the team placed those collection paint fragments back where they belonged using a microscope—and then used gesso and watercolor to retouch the remaining lines.   One of the most interesting things about the detailed account of the restoration is that along the way, every single technique was designed to be reversible. This is an idea that runs throughout art restoration and even archaeology, that, even though we might think we're improving or studying a piece of history in the least harmful way possible, it's likely that the conservators of the future will have better technology and better techniques for the work we're doing now. So they make sure to leave clear and careful breadcrumbs. Clues that, decades from now, might help future conservators understand how better to make this battered, beautiful painting whole. [National Gallery; h/t Hyperallergic] All images via the National Gallery of Ireland. 12 107Reply  Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan’s DiscussionsAll replies  Jon ProfileFollow  JonKelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Yesterday 10:50am Follow flyersph9 Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink I want to know more about the idiot who decided to punch the painting...is he in jail? Bankrupt? 108Reply  TheGuardLlama ProfileFollow  TheGuardLlamaJon Yesterday 10:52am Follow theguardllama Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink "The painting had three jagged rips down its center, twisted outward from where Shannon's fist hit the canvas. Shannon, for his part, is now serving a five-year sentence for his crime, which Metro UK explained as "an attempt to 'get back at the state.'" But the painstaking restoration has taken almost as long as his prison sentence." Come on, buddy. It's the second paragraph down lol. 167Reply  8-Bit-Josh ProfileFollow  8-Bit-JoshJon Yesterday 10:58am Follow 8bitjoshuaa Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink  He was sentenced to 5 years. He looks like a douche: 621Reply  SparJar ProfileFollow  SparJarJon Yesterday 11:08am Follow sparjar06 Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink Did you read the article? He is serving a 5 year sentence. 16Reply  Jon ProfileFollow  JonTheGuardLlama Yesterday 11:15am Follow flyersph9 Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink I'll admit, I skimmed. But thank you. 16Reply  TheGuardLlama ProfileFollow  TheGuardLlamaJon Yesterday 1:23pm Follow theguardllama Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink No worries. We all been there. Reply  kckempf ProfileFollow  kckempfKelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Yesterday 10:52am Follow kckempf Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink That's right! He got back at the Irish state. . . by punching a French painting? 21Reply  Avarana ProfileFollow  Avaranakckempf Yesterday 10:57am Follow avarana Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink But it's not France that's paying for the repair.. but Ireland, no? 1Reply  kckempf ProfileFollow  kckempfAvarana Yesterday 10:59am Follow kckempf Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink French bank BNP Paribas and its Paribas Foundation, actually. 3Reply  Avarana ProfileFollow  Avaranakckempf Yesterday 11:01am Follow avarana Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink Well, maybe in five years he will have learned from this error and will punch some real irish art or landmark, hopefully a spiked one. 11Reply  Deckard ProfileFollow  DeckardKelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Yesterday 10:57am Follow mderoller Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink Compare and contrast with this debacle: http://io9.com/king-tuts-buri...  827Reply  bobbythunderskull ProfileFollow  bobbythunderskullKelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Yesterday 11:02am Follow bobbythunderskullz Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink Instead of jail, they should have made him manage a Thomas Kinkade gallery as punishment. 437Reply  theimmc ProfileFollow  theimmcbobbythunderskull Yesterday 11:33am Follow theimmc Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink They have something against cruel and unusual punishment. 111Reply  Moonshadow Kati aka Lady Locksmith ProfileFollow  Moonshadow Kati aka Lady LocksmithKelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Yesterday 11:03am Follow moonshadowkati Flag Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest Share to Twitter Go to permalink Waste of time. Any good museum knows you just slap some epoxy on there, scrape it off with a spatula, and it'll be good to go with absolutely nobody being the wiser. 428Reply View all 107 replies  POPULAR STORIES  The NHL Will Use GoPros to Make Hockey Into Awesome Television Mario Aguilar on Gizmodo  US Navy to publicly show their amazing railgun for the first time ever Jesus Diaz on Sploid  Bulletproof Coffee: Debunking the Hot Buttered Hype Brent Rose on Gizmodo  How small is an atom, really? (or how to make your head explode) Jesus Diaz on Sploid AboutHelpTerms of UsePrivacyAdvertisingPermissionsContent GuidelinesRSSJobs Powered byKINJA