Alex Kachkine, a mechanical engineer and PhD student at MIT, has developed AI-generated digital masks to restore damaged paintings. The system uses a removable, precision-printed polymer film with clear and painted areas, applied over the artwork like a custom graphic wrap. Kachkine tested the technique on a late-15th-century oil-on-panel painting attributed to the Master of the Prado Adoration of the Magi, using generative AI to reconstruct 5,612 areas of loss, including an obliterated infant Jesus. The masks are produced in hours and are physically separated from the paint surface by a conservation-grade varnish.
This innovation matters because it offers a fast, reversible tool for conservators, reducing manual in-painting from months to hours. Published in the journal Nature, Kachkine's work represents a significant step in integrating AI and digital fabrication into traditional art restoration, potentially transforming how heavily damaged paintings are visually reconstructed while preserving the original artifact.