Update on Smuggled Russian Royalty

Remember the story of Smuggled Russian Royalty (http://fineartconservationlab.blogspot.com/2010/01/russian-royalty-smuggled-out.html)? Well, here's an update:

The 3 Royalty portraits ,were stabilized but not inpainted ( touched up) because owner wanted to show them in their most original condition. But here's the fun thing..After we delivered the 3 portraits back,  the owner, then  had them appraised at The Antiques Roadshow.

Broken Hanging Wire Causes RIpped Painting and $4,300.00 Worth of Damage

The reverse side of the painting with the rip, caused by the hanging wire breaking

The Laguna Arts Festival holds a lecture series (http://bit.ly/pVVE6C) and I was their visiting expert last week.  I spoke about general things to think about when protecting and saving collectibles, artwork etc. Well, yesterday, someone’s disaster walked through my front door. A valuable vintage painting’s wire broke and the oil painting on canvas hit the edge of a table and here’s what you get… a 6 inch x 18 inch “L” shapped rip and flaking paint. See the informative story with tips, link and videos at http://saveyourstuffblog.com/paintings/how-to-hang-a-painting-and-do-it-right/

•  You do the math; be a good curator of your collection or mishaps like the one in the photo above are $4,300.00 to fix perfect.

Questions” Call Scott at 805 564 3438
Art appraisal questions? Call Richard at 805 895 5121
Also see http://www.fineartconservationlab.com
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Broken Hanging Wire Causes RIpped Painting and $4,300.00 Worth of Damage

The reverse side of the painting with the rip, caused by the hanging wire breaking

The Laguna Arts Festival holds a lecture series (http://bit.ly/pVVE6C) and I was their visiting expert last week.  I spoke about general things to think about when protecting and saving collectibles, artwork etc. Well, yesterday, someone’s disaster walked through my front door. A valuable vintage painting’s wire broke and the oil painting on canvas hit the edge of a table and here’s what you get… a 6 inch x 18 inch “L” shapped rip and flaking paint. See the informative story with tips, link and videos at

•  You do the math; be a good curator of your collection or mishaps like the one in the photo above are $4,300.00 to fix perfect.

Questions” Call Scott at 805 564 3438
Art appraisal questions? Call Richard at 805 895 5121
Also see http://www.fineartconservationlab.com
Did you find this article helpful? Click on the THUMBS UP!
Please leave a comment.

Old Master Painting Damaged in Shipping

This very nice old master painting came into the lab yesterday with a gouge that occurred during shipping. A little magic of consolidating the flaking, filling the indentation, inpaint (careful accurate retouching with a varnish based paint) and carefully applied local varnish (along with 35 years of experience) made the scratch disappear.

Still, in this case, with a little better quality crate and better mounting of the painting into its period frame... this damage and its cost and bother could have been totally avoided.

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Look at this rip! Want to see some magic?!

This rip, on the left, was kind-a ugly: Ripped when the nail gave way and it fell off the wall. See entry at our other blog (www.savemystuff.blogspot.com). It ripped the fibers and got uglier when the fibers frayed.

So we turned it over and, under magnification, the fibers were realigned and rewoven. Then the ends of the fibers were "re-welded" back together. The photo on the right is the back of the rip after the "re-welding" and readhering of the ends back together. Nice, huh?

Even though the rip looks great and is now flat, the stress from the impact will result, in the future, in a disfiguring spiderweb or bull's eye type cracking pattern. So this painting will be lined to keep that from happening.