Overview
- The 17th-century image was reinstalled at 6:00 a.m. Monday in Seville, drawing hours-long lines and extended visiting hours through Wednesday.
- Conservator Pedro Manzano led the work, sharing monthly video updates under a consultative panel of specialists.
- Treatments included a 24-day anoxic process with Samitech, removal of pests and corrosive nails, cleaning and chromatic reintegration, and carbon-14 testing confirming its 17th-century origin.
- The return follows a June maintenance intervention by professor Francisco Arquillo that lengthened eyelashes and lightened the polychromy, triggering outcry and resignations within the brotherhood’s heritage leadership.
- An IAPH assessment identified deeper issues such as altered eyelids, changes to hands and tears, wood-boring insects, and a facial crack, and many visitors now report the image has recovered its gaze.