A couple in England is stunned by what they found behind their apartment walls while renovating their home.
You never know what you’re going to find in your own home, especially if it’s older. In this case, the couple‘s apartment is in a very old building, dating back to 1747.
Luke Budworth and Hazel Mooney live in England in a town called Yorkshire, and they were having new kitchen cabinets installed when their contractors called to tell them they found a painting behind the kitchen wall.
By the time they got home, the new cabinets were already put up so they couldn’t really see the painting anymore, but they were curious and figured there might be more paintings.
Luke got out a tool and started chipping away at the paneling in his living room and his intuition was right. He saw beautiful colors behind the wall. It was another mural.
They have a series of frescoes in their apartment. Fresco is painting directly onto wet plaster, so the mural becomes an integral part of the wall.
They contacted Historic England, which is an organization that preserves history, and they believe the art is more than 400 years old, from the 1660s, and predates the building. They think the building was actually built around the mural.
Preservation of the art is really expensive and tedious work so they are hoping in sharing the story that they will be able to raise funds for its conservation, and that maybe some researchers or students will be interested in doing the conservation work.
They are keeping the murals covered in the meantime, to keep them protected from direct sunlight. Historic England made replicas of the murals for the couple, so they have those up on the walls and they are enjoying them in their home until the figure out what to do with the real ones.
