Who led the major restoration of The Last Supper completed in 1999?

Pinin Brambilla Barcilon led the major restoration of Leonardo’s The Last Supper, completed in 1999.

The conservation campaign ran from 1978 to 1999 and was designed to stabilize the fragile mural while removing later repainting and accumulated grime. Brambilla Barcilon directed the painstaking work in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

The project relied on infrared reflectography, microscopic samples, archival research, and early copies of the painting to distinguish Leonardo’s surviving paint from later additions. Areas that could not be securely recovered were toned with restrained watercolor rather than imaginatively repainted.

The restoration was controversial because the cleaned mural looked substantially different from familiar, darkened reproductions. It also required converting the refectory into a sealed, climate-controlled space. The painting deteriorated unusually quickly because Leonardo used tempera on a prepared wall rather than traditional buon fresco.