Podcast time: When A Smudge Isn t What You Think It Is

I ve worked at many museums around the world as a certified art restorerassistant. The real experienced professionals restore old paintings to their original beauty by repairing damage. I am, on the other hand, tasked with cleaning the dirt that builds up on paintings after decades or centuries. I like doing detailed, careful cleaning and seeing painting transform back into likenew conditions. When I first started working, I preferred cleaning monochromepaintings as it was easier working with just black, white, and gray colors. As I got better at my job, I started to enjoy working with abstract paintings and the simple beauty of Impressionist landscapes. Though, I never learned to like portraits and still find them boring. Not too long again, I was sent to the National Gallery and the Munch Museum in Norway to clean their Edvard Munch paintings. Munch made four versions of his iconic painting known as The Scream. Three of them are in these two museums. I had finished two of the paintings and, by then,