Restoring a defaced Rothko painting

Mark Rothko’s painting, Black on Maroon (1958), was defaced with a black graffiti marker in 2012. “Restoring Rothko” (on YouTube) is a 17-minute documentary that shows how the expert restoration team at the Tate Gallery in London tested solvents and cleaning methods for nine months to find the optimal cleaning strategy for removing the ink while preserving Black on Maroon’s delicate paint layers. Rachel Barker, lead restorer, spent nine more months painstakingly removing the surface ink and carefully touching up the painting’s surface with oil paints. — MF