Cambridge, Massachusetts - A new technique using artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the restoration of damaged paintings, potentially allowing galleries to restore artworks previously deemed too costly to repair.
The method, developed by Alex Kachkine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, creates a digital reconstruction of damaged areas. This reconstruction is then printed onto a transparent polymer sheet and overlaid on the painting.
The process involves several steps:
Scanning the painting to identify damage.
Creating a digital mask to repair missing paint.
Printing the mask on a polymer sheet.
The technique was demonstrated on a late 15th-century painting, attributed to the Master of the Prado Adoration. The restoration, which would have taken approximately 200 hours using traditional methods, was completed much faster using AI.
The approach, described in Nature, could make it possible to restore many damaged paintings. However, ethical considerations remain, including the impact on the viewing experience and the appropriateness of certain corrections.
Professor Hartmut Kutzke at the University of Oslo's Museum of Cultural History noted that this method could widen public access to art by bringing damaged paintings out of storage and into view.