A forgotten masterpiece is rediscovered after languishing in the bowels of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for three decades, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Most museums keep many more works in storage than they do on display. The downside of this practice: Sometimes a masterpiece gets buried--and forgotten--in the basement.
That was the case with "Twilight on the Campagna" by George Inness, who in the late 19th century rivaled his contemporaries Winslow Homer and James McNeill Whistler in fame. Then the world almost forgot him, and "Twilight," one of Inness's major paintings, languished on a storage rack at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for three decades. Ironically, the decades of neglect of "Twilight" may have saved it from being damaged by the less sophisticated restoration techniques of the past, says Mark Mitchell, head of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum.Original Source: Wall Street Journal
Read the full story
here.