Visit to the Prince's Palace of Monaco: focus on restoration techniques - Episode 2/2

After taking us to the 13th edition of the Festival du Merveilleux at the Musée des Arts Forains in Paris, Marie Sorbier continues her "Grand Tour" to take us to the Prince's Palace of Monaco, which for several years has been restoring Renaissance frescoes discovered during a worksite. This is an exclusive visit, as the Palace will not be reopening its doors to the public until 26 March.

The story begins in 2013, when restoration work began on the façades of the Royal Courtyard of the Palace. At the time, the painters spotted an older decoration underneath the layers of 19th-century paint. In-depth research revealed that these were in fact frescoes dating from the Italian Renaissance, on the theme of the 12 labours of Hercules. A second discovery will be made in 2016 in another part of the Palace: the Salon Matignon. Then in 2020, further investigations will reveal 220 m² of frescoes in the Throne Room. In all, 600 m² of frescoes have been uncovered over the last ten years.

The work involved in restoring these frescoes is very time-consuming and requires a great deal of precision, as Marion Jolin, heritage decor painter, explains: "From a technical point of view, this is one of the first projects where we've used a laser to complete the final cleaning. So when you remove the frieze that was covered by 20th century decoration, you come across this layer that's a little greyish, and there's still some dirt. And by using a laser to clean the finish, we can restore the brilliance of the original fresco. The decision to use lasers is in line with the site's eco-responsible policy of not using toxic solvents. So it allows us to work without any inconvenience, particularly for the operators, the work and the environment".