They had no choice but to make it up as they went along

In the November 6, 2016 issue of The New York Times, Paula Deitz recalls her experience in Florence on November 4, 1966 when the Arno River overflowed and flooded the heart of Florence and quotes Marco Grassi who was there at that time about the decisions that had to be made for the treatment of the many damaged panel paintings. (“After the Flood: Saving Vasari’s ‘Last Supper’”) Per Grassi, “The experience was so new and no one could stand up and say what should be done technically with the works that had been immersed for a few hours in water mixed with mud and black heating oil”. Fearing that the painted surfaces would buckle as the panels dried out and shrunk, the decision was made to face the panel paintings with paper and methacrylate resin, leading to many problems later on when the paper was to be removed and the paintings restored. Now , fifty years later, that the damages caused by those emergency decisions have been undone and paintings like Vasari’s “Last Supper” are finally on view again, the world can know what conservators have long known and accepted– that in the immediate aftermath of the Flood, facing a situation it had not faced before, the conservation community in Florence had no choice but to make it up as it went along.