Nuns painted over Rome’s risqué frescoes for 300 years; restorers are now uncovering them

For nearly three centuries, layers of plain paint and plaster hid a remarkable secret inside one of Rome’s long-neglected Renaissance villas. Now, restorers peeling back those layers are bringing colourful scenes of gods, goddesses, soldiers and mythological figures back into view, as per a report by Smithsonian Magazine.The rediscovered artwork is inside Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, a sprawling 16th-century residence just a short distance from Rome’s Colosseum. The villa was acquired by Italy’s Lazio region for €25 million in 2024, and an extensive restoration is now revealing frescoes that had been deliberately covered after the property passed into the hands of a religious institution.The murals include nude and semi-nude figures from non-Christian mythology, which reportedly offended the nuns who occupied the villa from the 17th century. The paintings were subsequently plastered over, leaving the Renaissance artwork hidden for around 300 years. Today, conservators are carefully removing those later layers using techniques including laser cleaning and water-based methods. In some sections, the process has already revealed entire scenes that had disappeared from view for generations....