Ghent Altarpiece to Undergo Restoration

In the nearly six centuries since its completion in 1432, the Ghent Altarpiece, one of the world’s most renowned works of art, has not exactly been a stay-at-home kind of masterpiece. It was taken apart and hidden twice in the 16th century to protect it from iconoclasts and Calvinists. It was hauled to Paris two centuries later as a war trophy. In 1934 thieves stole two of its panels, and during World War II it was seized by the Nazis and kept in a salt mine.

St. Bavo Cathedral/Lukas — Art in Flanders, via J. Paul Getty Trust
The Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed in 1432, is showing its age.

The altarpiece, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, is showing its age, and on Wednesday officials from Belgium and the Getty Foundation are scheduled to announce in Ghent the beginning of an extensive restoration project, which will take place while the work remains on public view at its home, the St. Bavo Cathedral.
The Getty is providing $230,000 toward the initial stage of the project, a yearlong examination of the altarpiece that will determine what kind of physical restoration may be needed. The foundation will also announce that it is contributing $400,000 toward another major restoration project already under way in Florence, of “The Last Supper” by Giorgio Vasari, which was severely damaged during a 1966 flood and has not been on public view since.

The grants are part of an initiative by the Getty Foundation, Conservation Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum, based in Los Angeles, aimed at training a new generation of experts to restore paintings on wood panel, a highly specialized conservation field. Only a small number of experts around the world have the knowledge required to treat such works, which include thousands of paintings — the altarpiece, the Vasari and the Mona Lisa among them.

“Almost all of these specialists are going to retire in the next 10 years, and the next generation isn’t ready to take their place yet,” said Deborah Marrow, the director of the Getty Foundation, which, including the two new grants, has provided almost $1 million toward the overall restoration initiative since it began last year. “This is about trying to get that next generation into place more quickly.”

Anne van Grevenstein-Kruse, a professor at the University of Amsterdam and one of the conservation experts who will lead the Ghent project, said the altarpiece, painted on thick oak panels, had not been cleaned or conserved since the 1950s. She said the Diocese of Ghent decided two years ago to begin looking for money and expertise to re-examine it.

The left wings were dismantled last week for inspection, and the right wings will soon follow, she said. While glued joints have begun to separate in one of the center panels, and paint has begun to flake, the overall condition of the oil painting remains surprisingly good, she added. The team leading the restoration will not make a decision about whether the panels need extensive physical treatments until after the examination is completed toward the end of the year.

“It’s like dealing with the human body,” Ms. van Grevenstein-Kruse said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Amsterdam. “Sometimes it might be best to leave something alone for several years than to intervene. It depends very much on which expert you have at the side of the sick person. So now the conversation will begin.”