🔬 For The Science

An extremely rare picture of Andrzej found in the Medical Institute of Austria. During the 19th century this picture was only available to the students at the institute's library and was later moved into the archives where it remained for the entire 20th century. The picture was only recently retrieved from the archives and put on display in the Medical Museum. From there, it traveled to the Vienna Museum of Art and Antiquities before being sold to a private collector and disappearing for another decade until it turned up in a Polish art collection in New York, from where it was purchased by a collector in London who subsequently sold it to an art dealer in Paris, who eventually auctioned it off in Monaco, where it was ultimately bought by an entrepreneur from Japan, who later donated it back to the Institute. It is currently held by the Medical Museum in Krakow, Poland. This picture is believed to be the sole surviving copy that depicts Andrzej at just 18 years of age.

Unfortunately, the picture is severely damaged and has been restored several times. Originally, it was restored by a Polish photographer Sernik Babciński, who worked on it in 1897. The picture was later restored again in 1905 by a German art conservator Kleine Brezel, who removed the yellowed areas and added a few minor details. A third restoration was carried out by a French art restorer Jumelle Galette in 1930, who fixed the frame and cleaned the glass. A more recent restoration was performed by a Japanese specialist, Shokuji Bento, who worked on the picture in 1995 and filled in some of the missing folds with origami paper. In 2015, the Institute commissioned another restoration by a notorious Italian Neo-Renaissance master, Yuni "Mama Mia" Biscotti, who made some changes that are still debated among the contortion art historians. In 2024, the modern restoration was completed by a British expert, Dr. Uno Why, MC, who meticulously analyzed the original technique and restored it back to its original form.