[rladd]

The original is badly damaged, and then damaged more by over-cleaning, one of the misplaced enthusiasms of our age.

By stripping away everything but the original paint (of which often not much is left), irreplaceable information is lost, because the retouchers had often seen the original or more of it, and restored detail that had been damaged.

What remains after these extreme cleanings is too often little more than the underpainting and initial sketch. It's a great loss and a great pity.