When 250 works by Pablo Picasso go on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in April, art lovers will be paying particular attention to a small section in the right-hand corner of a single canvas: The Actor.
The $130-million (U.S.), 105-year-old oil painting, measuring 115 cm by 200 cm, was the victim last week of a clumsy art student who stumbled into the canvas and tore a six-inch gash. Met experts are now assessing the damage and the optimum approach for repairs.
So how do you fix a Picasso? Not easily. It's a delicate, time-consuming and expensive process.
The first task is documenting the injury. "This doesn't mean simply a written analysis," explains Maria Sullivan, conservator of paintings at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario, "but photographs of the tear from every angle, and under different lighting conditions, including the use of ultra-violet and infrared cameras."
The precise approach used in restoring The Actor won't be determined until the Met's conservation team has grasped the full extent of the problem. In an official statement, the institution said only that it expects the repair "will be unobtrusive."
Nevertheless, it will be challenging. The tear, notes Toronto restoration expert Zoya Balija, is actually a puncture, which will have stretched or deformed the area around it.
A number of difficult steps are involved in fixing that. These include collecting and consolidating loose flakes of paint, reweaving the linen canvas to secure the edges of the tear, and then sticking together the torn threads. A new piece of linen, matched as closely as possible with the original, will also have to be fitted at the back, to stabilize the tear.
The fabric patch will be glued, probably using a wax-resin mixture or wax adhesive. After the tears and holes have been treated, the support needs to be lined. When that is done, the canvas will be pressed and left to dry.
Only then, says Balija, will the missing paint be applied, likely by a senior conservation professional trying to match the shine, colour tones and texture of the original.
Whatever the Met's next step, Toronto restorer Michaela Bosworth says, "There are two general rules of thumb conservators tend to follow. One, less is more. And, two, whatever you do, it should be reversible."
As for the cost? Bosworth estimates repair work would be a few thousand dollars in Canada. But she said the Met would likely spend a significant multiple of that figure before the paining is hung once more for exhibition.