12 Art and Museum Institutions Use AI to Restore Art’s Original Colors

A new AI project aims to restore the original colors of famous artworks that have faded over time.

So far, ART News reported that it has already involved 12 major institutions, like the MUNCH Museum in Oslo and the Art Institute of Chicago.

The process includes using artificial intelligence to digitally reconstruct the colors that have deteriorated due to exposure to light and humidity. One notable artwork being reimagined is Edvard Munch's "The Scream." The European Union supports the project under the name PERCEIVE and focuses on bringing back historical pieces.

PERCEIVE Project Using AI to Restore Art

The PERCEIVE project was launched in early 2023 and has created an AI toolkit that can digitally restore colors in various forms of art, including paintings, textiles, and even augmented reality artworks. The project's scope includes five key groups of art, and the institutions involved are providing invaluable data from their collections.

Now, researchers at the MUNCH Museum are specifically concentrating on restoring two versions of Edvard Munch's *The Scream": one that is an oil painting on cardboard and another that is a hand-colored print. Their work is part of a larger initiative that also involves other artworks, such as Paul Cézanne's "Road in Provence" at the Art Institute of Chicago and ancient frescoes at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

All these artworks have experienced color fading and deterioration over the years, and the aim of this project is to digitally reconstruct their original colors, providing a fresh perspective on how they once looked.

AI technology companies, such as Fraunhofer-IGD and imki, are collaborating to develop the AI infrastructure needed to reconstruct the original colors of these works.

At a recent conference in Oslo, researchers from the PERCEIVE project showed off new AI tools that can restore the original colors of artwork. Irina Crina Anca Sandu, a scientist at the MUNCH Museum, introduced a program called "The Scream Time Machine," which lets people see how the famous painting "The Scream" looked in 1893 and imagine how it might look in 2093.

While no physical changes are being made to the artworks, the project raises questions about how to preserve the true essence of art. Sandu, instead, countered: "The Scream is part of the universal heritage of humanity... using these AI technologies, we are able to take its message beyond our lifetime."