New Project Saves Paintings from Destruction (?)
December 27 2021
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian published an interesting story yesterday regarding a new research project into a set of paintings held by the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery. The piece focuses on the work of Tara Munroe who has been researching a rare and intriguing set of 'casta' paintings created in eighteenth century Mexico. These paintings, donated to the gallery in 1852, depict race and class divisions as they were perceived around two hundred and fifty years ago.
The article also claims that the set of five paintings in the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery "had been marked for destruction by the gallery."
The article quotes Munroe:
A lot of people had looked at these paintings before, and they were just being used to train picture restorers before they were destroyed. It was only because I was working there that I saw something in them. There is a new level of understanding that comes when you have different people working somewhere.
This image of one of the canvases does seem to show various attempts at a cleaning test in the sky, presumably undertaken some time ago:
Fortunately, efforts to restore and redisplay the works will be completed later in 2022.
