{"id":594898,"date":"2026-05-20T19:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594898\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:41:11","slug":"baumgartner-restoration-painstakingly-brings-a-neglected-portrait-back-to-life-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594898\/","title":{"rendered":"Baumgartner Restoration Painstakingly Brings a Neglected Portrait Back to Life \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPaintings arrive at the studio in all states of disrepair,\u201d shares art conservator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BaumgartnerRestoration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Julian Baumgartner<\/a>, who receives artworks in need of attention all the time. He adds, \u201cIt is, however, odd to have a painting arrive in a manner that can\u2019t help but make one wonder just how bad it is.\u201d An anonymous portrait was indeed folded inside a parcel that itself had been mangled enough in transit to make one think, Is this going to be salvageable? For the highly trained painting restorer, though, \u201cFortune favors the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Baumgartner has seen his fair share of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/tag\/baumgartner-restoration\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bad overpainting<\/a> and, in this case, pretty substantial creases, tears, and worn-away paint. He runs Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration, a Chicago-based studio focused on ensuring that works of art are conserved and repaired so future generations can continue to enjoy them. With painstaking attention to detail and\u2014just as importantly\u2014the use of reversible, archival materials, this neglected portrait is given what seems like an almost miraculous second chance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baumgartner-1.jpeg\" class=\"swipebox\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-474170\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1121\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baumgartner-1.jpeg\" alt=\"a still from a video by Baumgartner Restoration of a painting being restored, with tears and creases in the canvas being prepped\" class=\"wp-image-474177\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baumgartner-2.jpeg\" class=\"swipebox\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-474170\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1119\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baumgartner-2.jpeg\" alt=\"a still from a video by Baumgartner Restoration of a damaged portrait painting newly installed on a sturdy backing and stretcher bars\" class=\"wp-image-474178\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baumgartner-3.jpeg\" class=\"swipebox\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-474170\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1130\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/baumgartner-3.jpeg\" alt=\"a still from a video by Baumgartner Restoration of a painting being unfolded\" class=\"wp-image-474179\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Hide advertising<\/p>\n<p>Save your favorite articles<\/p>\n<p>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Receive members-only newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPaintings arrive at the studio in all states of disrepair,\u201d shares art conservator Julian Baumgartner, who receives artworks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[45850,6225,6485,6486,203368,1120,96,12787,19409,56,54,55,5793],"class_list":["post-594898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art-history","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-baumgartner-restoration","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-painting","tag-portraits","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}