Uffizi Gallery Bombing: Binding Up the Wounds : Art: As curators grapple with a damage survey, questions arise about repair methods and display safety.

The May 27 bombing of the Uffizi Gallery set off a barrage of questions about artworks in Florence’s magnificent treasure trove. Which works were lost? Which were damaged, and how badly?

Answers came quickly--3 paintings destroyed, 30 paintings and 3 sculptures damaged--but the news only inspired new questions. What kinds of injuries were sustained by the artworks? Who will heal them? What methods will be used?

These later questions are tougher, but the Uffizi staff is grappling with them--even as they struggle to reopen about 80% of the gallery on June 20--according to Uffizi director Anna Maria Petrioli.

The most prevalent injuries to the paintings are cuts made by flying glass from broken windows and skylights. But conservators expect to find less visible damage when they do a more thorough assessment of the collection. “A lot of other works have suffered traumas due to the air displacement caused by the bomb, and they need to be looked at,” Petrioli said, referring to pieces that were jolted by the blast and may have been dangerously weakened.

In an outpouring of concern immediately after the catastrophe, more than 30 institutions from around the world, including the J. Paul Getty Trust and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, offered assistance to the Uffizi.

Some offers of cash and technical expertise will be accepted from foreign institutions, Petrioli said, but few decisions have been made as to how conservation jobs will be apportioned in Italy and no foreign agencies have been enlisted to date.

Damaged works that have been restored recently, such as Sebastiano del Piombo’s “Death of Adonis,” will be returned to the Italian conservators who worked on them earlier, Petrioli said. Other pieces will go the Florence restoration center at the Fortezza da Bazzo or to conservators working privately in Florence.

Paintings damaged by flying glass have suffered a type of damage that can be repaired but not completely hidden, said Andrea Rothe, chief paintings conservator at the Getty Museum, who worked in Florence from 1956 to 1981 and maintains close contacts at the Uffizi. “We have adhesives now that are so strong, you can actually glue together the ends of threads in a canvas,” Rothe said. “But sharp cuts break the irregularity of the surface. You can never repair them 100%.”

Instead of patching or lining the paintings, conservators will simply--though painstakingly--reattach broken threads of the slashed canvases to restore the necessary tension to the fabric. “There must be a continuous tension so that there is no dent or bulge in the surface,” he said. The damage won’t disturb the paintings’ aesthetic quality when the conservation is complete, Rothe said, but the repairs will be visible when viewed in bright light and from certain angles.

For the most part, art conservation will have to wait until after the reopening of the gallery, which is the most pressing need, since it is a major attraction and source of tourist income. A concentrated effort is under way to repair stairways, windows, roofs and air-conditioning so that about 80% of the gallery can accommodate visitors. In the meantime, relatively small artworks that were hit by debris from the blast or endangered by exposure through blown-out windows and skylights have been moved to safer areas of the Uffizi Palace, while larger pieces have been wrapped in plastic and left in place.

Peter Paul Rubens’ huge painting “Henry IV at the Battle at Ivry” has a two-foot gash, but moving it is likely to create more problems, so it will be repaired in the gallery that houses it. The painting has been put under wraps to protect it from the elements while a temporary roof of corrugated metal is installed.

Much of the damage to the artwork eventually will be repaired, but at least one conservator is worried about other effects of the bombing. “For me, the greatest tragedy is that bullet-proof glass will be put on more of the paintings because those that were destroyed were not behind glass,” Rothe said.

“That glass is just horrendous. It completely distorts the paintings. The greenish glass distorts colors and the three-inch space that is usually left between the glass and the surface of the painting allows dust to collect. . . . You can’t see paintings behind that glass, but it will never be taken away and more will be added wherever it’s possible.”

Times researcher Janet Stobart contributed to this story from Rome.