Before and after: Restored artworks once damaged by the Nazis (PHOTOS)

Culture
RUSSIA BEYOND
During World War II, many art objects ended up damaged and some have only recently been restored, following years of painstaking work. We put together a few masterpieces for you.

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts has launched a feature on its website titled Twice Rescued, showing incredible photos of works of art, antique ceramics and sculptures that suffered damage during World War II - before and after their restoration.

In 1945, Soviet museums received art treasures brought from Germany as compensatory restitution. Soviet specialists restored these painting masterpieces from the Dresden Gallery, as well as other unique antique and Western European sculpture works and applied arts. This work continued into modern Russia, as well. In the first decade of the 2000s alone, Russian restorers brought over 750 rare objects ‘back to life’.

1. Campana relief depicting palestra with statues of athletes

Rome, 1st century BC - 1st century AD

2. Donatello D. (?), Dancing Cupid or Spiritello

Italy, 1500-1525 (?)

3. Oenochoe decorated with concentric circles

Cyprus, 7th century BC

4. Agostino Zoppo, The Mountain of Hell

Italy, mid-1550s

5. Head of a Young Boy

After a model by Desiderio da Settignano (1430-1464)

6. Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, called Donatello (ca. 1386 - 1466), St John the Baptist

Florence, 1425-1430 (?)

7. Style of Andrea Briosco, called Il Riccio (1470-1532), Boy With an Insect (Inkwell)

8. Attic black-glazed calyx-krater circled with ivy wreath

Attica, early 3rd century BC

9. Bucchero amphora depicting a procession of horsemen and a goddess's heads

Etruria, 6th century BC

10. The Darius Painter, Apulian red-figure amphora depicting Actaeon's death

Southern Italy, Apulia. From Ceglie del Campo, ca. 320 BC

The ‘Twice Rescued’ photo exhibition of artworks restored in the Pushkin Museum workshops will open in the Indian city of Chennai in September 2020 and at the Pushkin Museum itself in October 2020.