There is a guaranteed method for making even the most peaceful of restorers hostile: uttering the phrase “restore to ancient splendor” in his presence. Emanuela Daffra, superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, is explaining this to us in front of a panel by Giovanni Bellini that is under the care of professionals working in the institute’s laboratories, an internationally renowned center of excellence in the field of restoration.

It is a marvelous altarpiece that Bellini painted in the early 1610s for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Murano, only to be transferred, after the Napoleonic suppressions, to the church of San Pietro Martire, also in Murano.