How The Destroyed £10 Million Monet Painting Was Restored

Recently, a 49 year-old man received a five year prison sentence for a 2012 incident in the National Gallery of Ireland where he punched through an oil painting worth £10 million GBP by Claude Monet. What happened though to the painting itself? Following the incident, the National Gallery of Ireland assembled a team to restore the 1874 painting, titled Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, back to its former glory with the same precision of a CSI operation. What ensued was an arduous 18 month-long process involving extensive research, analysis and conservation efforts which at points entailed picking up over 100 miniscule individual fragments of paint from the scene and reinserting them into the painting. The team analyzed and replicated the exact composition of the original paint and varnish, and realigning microscopic threads of the tear edges by hand. Having been put back on public display in July, here’s to hoping that the painting remains undisturbed for a long time to come.