“The conservation-restoration treatment of Tavern Interior by Pieter Pietersz, dated from the second half of the sixteenth century, was trusted to me in May last year as my first project with The Phoebus Foundation. This beautiful oil painting on canvas immediately impressed me with its refined artistic technique. However, its condition also instantly startled me.”

“From the beginning, I noticed the painting was full of problems. Only after removing the varnish and overpainting did the real image emerge. The oxidized varnish and the altered past retouching concealed an excessively worn original paint layer that had endured harsh incidents over the past five centuries. Inadequate conservation conditions and past inappropriate restoration treatments, such as aggressive cleanings, invasive linings, old overpainting, etc., are some of the interventions worth mentioning.”