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- BUSINESS, Page 64Business NotesART RESTORATIONMurder of a Masterpiece?
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- American Modernist Barnett Newman's giant abstract painting
- Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III was the pride of
- Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum before a vandal slashed it in 1986.
- At the time, the painting was valued at $3.1 million. Last
- August, after U.S. art restorer Daniel Goldreyer repaired the
- damage for a fee of $300,000, Who's Afraid was again put on
- display. Now Dutch art experts are seeing red. Amsterdam art
- historian Ernst van de Wetering has charged that Goldreyer
- covered the entire canvas using a roller rather than reproducing
- Newman's brushstrokes.
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- After microscopic tests on Newman's work, a Dutch
- laboratory concluded that Goldreyer had not matched the original
- oils. Instead, the lab reported, the restorer had used alkyd,
- a synthetic paint commonly used on window frames. Goldreyer has
- acknowledged that he covered the canvas with an alkyd "seal" to
- protect the work, but contends his restoration was faithful. The
- Amsterdam cultural committee plans to try to recoup at least the
- restoration costs.
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