One of the most difficult parts of being a museum with an art restoration department are how many objects fall out of older paintings. It's not unusual to find a terrified security guard who saw half a Venetian woman dragging herself by her entrails in the warehouse at night, leaving "bloody" marks on the floor that turned out to be mercuric vermillion.
Objects are unable to mourn in the same way as people can, and the dreams of the painter can devitrify themselves from the canvas. Pastoral scenes are less dramatic but soon the "plants" made of ochre and polyurethane coating will start sprouting in the storage areas out of racks of steel and floors of concrete.
In 1983, a French museum set off alarms when 2 and a half horses rampaged through the museum and while they appeared on tape they were never found. It was discovered a particularly strong American 17th century painting was covered in yellowing shellac was responsible.
The act of making a painting and its subsequent neglect can be thought of as a summoning ritual to reify resentment of not being seen. Indeed, when museums present restored works, that's usually because something broke out of it before and it needs appreciation to be still again.
